All Saints Singing

In this Sunday's service we celebrated All Saints Day (11/1) and Veterans Day (11/11). The first remembers great victory and the second terrible tragedy. It was also communion and I was reminded how when we sing as the saints of God we  "join our voices with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven" as the Anglican communion service states.
When we sing God's praises as the people of God we join in song with all who have gone before.

You can hear the congregation singing in the recordings I made this morning (click on the links). I find this sound, this act, this joining our voices "with all the company of heaven" the most moving experience.

How Firm a Foundation/How Deep The Father's Love for Us
The congregation really raises the roof for the second hymn (2:41). I took the first two lines of Townend's first verse and stuck on the first two lines of the third. Ending on "I will boast in Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection" seemed a good way to go into the eucharist.
Be not afraid
We played this during communion. I like the way you can hear the administration of the elements in the foreground. Mary did a great job on her violin. The congregation's voices swelled in the last chorus.
Let Children Hear the Mighty Deeds 
This is Isaac Watts' metrical setting of Psalm 78. We are using the tune DUNLAPS CREEK which we took from Southern Harmony.

Choir of Angels mosaic on the ceiling of the Baptistry of St. John in Florence, Italy (mid 12th century)