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Centennial Year Church Events
December 19, 2004 - The Choir of SS. Peter and Paul Orthodox Church in South River, New Jersey presented its sixth annual Holiday Concert in Church. The singing was of both religious and secular music and was open not only to parishoners but the public at large. There is no service in the Orthodox Church in which the choir does not participate in a significant manner. Since no man-made instruments are permitted in Orthodox services, all hymns of praise to God are sung a cappella by God's creation. Now in her Centennial Jubilee Year, SS. Peter and Paul Church has been blessed throughout her history in having dedicated and talented volunteer singers and readers who assemble regularly at Divine Services and, as well, at choir practice, to sing praises to God and beautify and embellish Orthodox worship. Furthermore, both Church and Choir have been blessed in having a succession of talented Choirmasters - among them children of priests, those having a theological education, and those with a love of religious music and all types of music in general. Our current Choirmaster, Mr. Basil Kozak, is the most recent and current descendant of that distinguished lineage. Below left is shown SS. Peter and Paul Orthodox Church Choir in 1910 (year certain, priest unknown), five years after the founding of our Church, while below right we see the most recent photo of our choir taken with our current and former Rectors, Father David Garretson and Father Sergius Kuharsky, respectively, at the conclusion of Divine Liturgy on Nativity 2003. Center foreground of the same photo is Choirmaster Mr. Kozak.
Above left and right, this is one of the few times of the year when the Church is open but the choir loft is uncharacteristically vacant. Below left, the choir processes down the main aisle of our Church at the beginning of the concert. Below right, Father David Garretson welcomes the audience prior to the concert.
The block of six photos below shows various views of the choir in performance and the attentive audience.
The audience applauded (above left) and photographed (above right) the performers during the course of the concert.
The block of four photos above shows close up views of Choirmaster Kozak and the choir members. They sang a variety of selections including Orthodox hymns from the Nativity services, a selection from Rachmaninoff's "All-Night Vigil", a Colonial American hymn, and the ever-popular "Silent Night".
Father David placed on his stole and addressed the audience concerning the history of our Church at the conclusion of the concert (above right and left). He then led the choir in the singing of "Many Years!" for all present (below left and right).
Above left, at the end of the concert Father David greets one of the clergy from neighboring Churches who was present. Above right, there was no admission charge for the concert, however, a collection of non-perishable canned goods was taken for charitable donation to the South River Food Bank.
At the conclusion of the concert, parishoners posed for photos standing next to the festively decorated tree in Church (above left) or, alternatively, standing next to another festively decorated parishoner (above right).
Above and below, a reception was held in the Church Hall following the concert. Baked goods and coffee were available. Above left, one of the junior members of our parish pours coffee and learns the value of service to others. The sixth annual Holiday Concert is now part of our Centennial Year history with the seventh annual Holiday Concert by the choir just a little over eleven months away!
Copyright © 2004, Saints Peter and Paul Orthodox Church, South River, NJ