As soon as we opened a window to the future, we began hearing glorious echoes from the past.
The Sewickley UMC children and youth will lead our Mother’s Day worship service on May 11th. The combined service, supported by Leap of Faith, will begin at 10:00 am.
The Mother’s Day leadership team – Grace, Felicity and Bill – intend to provide something innovative and energetic. We wanted it to be bold and new. We don’t want to follow in footsteps. We want to make a new footprint.
We chose Psalm 150 – the “Last Psalm” in the epic Book of Psalms – as our foundation. It is big and small, loud and soft. Each verse whispers and shouts, just like our SUMC children.
We wanted to include dance, something the children have never seen in our worship services.
But as the details of our plan began to circulate, we heard echoes of SUMC’s past.
Our sanctuary has a history of dance.
Our services have a relationship with the “Last Psalm.” It was used to celebrate God as we transitioned toward the big and small, loud and soft, whispers and shouts of contemporary worship.
When Grace introduces her young dancers on May 11th, they will be extending a worship tradition mentioned in a 3,000-year-old Psalm and embraced by a previous generation.
The “Sacred Movement Choir” was an SUMC ministry from the 1970s through at least 1994, according to Sandra Kuriger, who was part of the dance team. Gail Garlitz, Nancy Kramer, and Peg Nicholson were also part of the group.
Kuriger recalls dancing in SUMC worship services several times each year, and accepting invitations to dance at other churches. They also danced at the wedding of Kristine and Mike Swaney at SUMC in 1990.
The Sacred Movement Choir wore leotards and skirts, similar to what Grace’s girls will wear on Mother’s Day.
Back Row: Sandy Kuriger & Gail Garlitz
Front Row: Nancy Kramer & Peggy Nicholas
Wedding of Kristine & Mike Swaney, 1990
The “Last Psalm” was part of a music movement at SUMC in the mid-2000s. Guitarist Hurst Bartley and drummer Jack Moffett, founding members of Leap of Faith, were asked to accompany the Wesley Chorale, a youth choir directed by Pamela Mayo that was exploring contemporary Christian music.
Choir director Sharon Schaefer was also drawn to contemporary music and invited Hurst, Jack and bassist Richard Fairlie, then a high school student, to perform in worship. They were originally known as “Fifth Sunday” because they played whenever a month offered a fifth Sunday.
“Fifth Sunday” was soon joined by a new choir, which included Pamela Mayo, Mike and Kristine Swaney, Susie Moffett, Sandy Kuriger, Maggie Wilkinson, along with Meg Mayo, Martha Boward, Cheryl Fulton, Sandra Lane, Kim Benjamin, Aimee Scott, Lou Ann Scott, and Kelly Herman.
As they began to perform in services beyond fifth Sundays, they took the name “Last Psalm” because of the Psalm’s celebration of strings and drums, brass and woodwinds.
Legend suggests the choir director who chose the name wanted anyone who doubted the legitimacy of contemporary music in worship to know that instruments of every kind were traditionally welcomed into praise and worship events. Don’t believe in drums and guitars and saxophones? Read the last psalm.
In 2009, Leap of Faith was formed, and our contemporary worship service was launched.
It is this footpath created by the extraordinary dancers of the Sacred Movement Choir, and the innovative musicians and singers of “Last Psalm,” that the smaller footprints of our Mother’s Day 2025 cast follows. We are blessed and inspired by SUMC history.