Liturgy
The Holy Eucharist, Rite II, is celebrated as the sole Sunday service at 11 A.M. On the third Sunday of each month we incorporate a Laying on of Hands & Prayers for Healing into the service.

We also celebrate an Evening Prayer Wednesday evenings at 6:30 P.M., followed by either a Christian Education program or a parish meeting. For current information please contact the parish administrator for details.

Much of the Sunday Eucharist is sung, with substantial participation by the congregation. Members of the congregation also read the lessons, lead the Prayers of the People and administer the Chalice.

Music

Music has a special place in our worship, which starts with the architecture of our sanctuary and its warm acoustics. We encourage vocal participation by congregants and visitors alike, with congregational hymns and songs, seasonal mass settings, psalm responses, and Alleluias. Our professional five-voice CGS Choir helps lead worship most Sundays. The newly formed CGS Children ’s Choir also sings bimonthly with the adult choir. In addition to supporting congregational singing, our choirs regularly sing an anthem and a communion motet. Our repertoire, while grounded in classical music from the early Renaissance to the 21st century, also ranges to African American spirituals and gospel, American shape-note hymns, South African freedom songs, Asian and Latin American folk music, and newly composed pieces. Our Wednesday Evening Prayer services feature ‘paperless’ music, which is often simple a cappella singing of a more contemporary and contemplative feel. We also offer special music programs for Advent Lessons & Carols, Christmas Eve, Holy Week, and a spring concert. In all our music we glorify God by reflecting both the richness and beauty of our past and the diversity and urgency of our present. If you sing, play an instrument, or want to contribute in other ways to our music program, please contact Organist/Choir Director Parker Kitterman at 919-260-2110 or parkerkitterman@hotmail.com.

 

Good Shepherd is very proud of its pipe organ, an instrument built in 1894 by George Jardine & Son, the well-known Manhattan builder whose instruments graced many of the city’s most prominent churches in the 19th century. The 23-rank instrument, which the parish adopted in 1984 as part of its celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Diocese of New York, was rescued from the abandoned St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Hoboken by a crew of Good Shepherd volunteers which included the rector, the organist and members of the choir. The two-manual and pedal organ was refurbished in the Brooklyn shop of Mann & Trupiano, organ builders. Largely through the efforts of a few volunteer parishioners working with a master organ builder, very substantial additions were made to this instrument, which was dedicated in 1992. Every Sunday our organ can be heard playing opening and closing voluntaries, hymns, and accompanying the choir.

A new set of handbells was donated in the Spring of 2000, a gift from Hugh Trumbell Adams. They were blessed by Bishop Taylor during the St. Tikhon celebration on April 6, 2000. Mr. Adams also generously provided Good Shepherd with a new carillon system which not only rings the hour and calls us to worship, but is programmed with over 200 tunes representing different seasons of the church year.