A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word hymn derives from Greek ὕμνος (hymnos), which means "a song of praise". A writer of hymns is known as a hymnist. The singing or composition of hymns is called hymnody. Collections of hymns are known as hymnals or hymn books. Hymns may or may not include instrumental accompaniment.
A metrical psalter is a kind of Bible translation: a book containing a verse translation of all or part of the Book of Psalms in vernacular poetry, meant to be sung as hymns in a church. Some metrical psalters include melodies or harmonisations. The composition of metrical psalters was a large enterprise of the Protestant Reformation, especially in its Calvinist manifestation.
Anglican church music is music that is written for Christian worship in Anglican religious services, forming part of the liturgy. It mostly consists of pieces written to be sung by a church choir, which may sing a cappella or accompanied by an organ.
A precentor is a person who helps facilitate worship. The details vary depending on the religion, denomination, and era in question. The Latin derivation is præcentor, from cantor, meaning "the one who sings before".
Kingdom songs are the hymns sung by Jehovah's Witnesses at their religious meetings. Since 1879, the Watch Tower Society has published hymnal lyrics; by the 1920s they had published hundreds of adapted and original songs, and by the 1930s they referred to these as "Kingdom songs" in reference to God's Kingdom.
Exclusive psalmody is the practice of singing only the biblical Psalms in congregational singing as worship. Today it is practised by several Protestant, especially Reformed denominations. Hymns besides the Psalms have been composed by Christians since the earliest days of the church, but psalms were preferred by the early church and used almost exclusively until the end of the fourth century. During the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther and many other reformers, including those associated with the Reformed tradition, used hymns as well as psalms, but John Calvin preferred the Psalms and they were the only music allowed for worship in Geneva. This became the norm for the next 200 years of Reformed worship. Hymnody became acceptable again for the Reformed in the middle of the nineteenth century, though several denominations, notably the Reformed Presbyterians, continue the practice of exclusive psalmody.
Sunrise service is a worship service specifically on Easter Sunday practiced by some Christian denominations, such as the Moravian Church.
The Dixie Classic was an annual college basketball tournament played from 1949 to 1960 in Reynolds Coliseum. The field consisted of the "Big Four" North Carolina schools, the host NC State Wolfpack, Duke Blue Devils, North Carolina Tar Heels, and Wake Forest Demon Deacons, and four teams from across the country.
"We Gather Together" is a Christian hymn of Dutch origin written in 1597 by Adrianus Valerius as "Wilt heden nu treden" to celebrate the Dutch victory over Spanish forces in the Battle of Turnhout. It was originally set to a Dutch folk tune. In the United States, it is popularly associated with Thanksgiving Day and is often sung at family meals and at religious services on that day.
The Moravian musical tradition in United States began with the earliest Moravian settlers in the first half of the 18th century.
These Moravians were members of a well-established church – officially called Unitas Fratrum or Unity of Brethren – that by [the mid-18th century] had already seen almost three centuries of rich experience of religious life. They were spiritual descendants of the Czech priest Jan Hus, who for his attempts at reform was martyred in 1415. Forty-two years later in 1457, some of his followers founded a church body consecrated to following Christ in simplicity and dedicated living.
This newly constituted church developed a rich and orderly ecclesiastical life in the 15th and 16th centuries, but in the Thirty Years War of 1618-48 it was virtually wiped out. In the 1720s a few exiles of this religious heritage, along with various other seekers after truth, found refuge on an estate of a Saxon nobleman named Nicholaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf. There in their village of Herrnhut the ancient church experienced a rebirth culminating in a spiritual blessing on August 13, 1727, in which their former diversity of purpose was welded into one.
In a brief five years, by 1732, that first little village of the Renewed Moravian Church began sending missionaries to all corners of the world. After establishing work in England, the Moravians sent colonists to America in 1735. The initial settlement in Georgia proved unsuccessful, partly because of war between Protestant England and Catholic Spain to the south in Florida. More permanent work was established in Pennsylvania in 1741, with the town of Bethlehem as their chief center. Other settlements in Pennsylvania followed. The Moravians purchased 100,000 acres in North Carolina and settled at Bethabara in 1753 with the central town of Salem being founded in 1766.” [Villages of the Lord]
A hymn tune is the melody of a musical composition to which a hymn text is sung. Musically speaking, a hymn is generally understood to have four-part harmony, a fast harmonic rhythm, with or without refrain or chorus.
Presbyterian worship documents worship practices in Presbyterian churches; in this case, the practices of the many churches descended from the Scottish Presbyterian church at the time of the Reformation.
Robert James "Bob" Conrad Jr. is a Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. He was the district's former chief judge (2006–2013) and a former nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to take the place of the retired James Dickson Phillips Jr. He is a former member of the executive committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States (2016–2020).
Lining out or hymn lining, called precenting the line in Scotland, is a form of a cappella hymn-singing or hymnody in which a leader, often called the clerk or precentor, gives each line of a hymn tune as it is to be sung, usually in a chanted form giving or suggesting the tune. It can be considered a form of call and response. First referred to as "the old way of singing" in eighteenth-century Britain, it has influenced twentieth century popular music singing styles.
Thomas Settle was a United States Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Peru, an associate justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida.
The Church of the Good Shepherd is a historic Episcopal church in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. The congregation branched off of Christ Episcopal Church in 1874, making it the second oldest Episcopal parish in Raleigh. It is part of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina and served as the Pro-cathedral church of the diocese in the mid-1890s.
The Trinity Baptist Church sex scandal was a United States sex scandal that came to national attention in 2011. The scandal centered on the way that Trinity Baptist Church, an Independent Baptist church in Concord, New Hampshire, and its former pastor handled the 1997 rape and subsequent pregnancy of one of its members, a minor girl, by her employer. The employer was another member of the congregation who hired the girl as a babysitter for his children.
Word of Faith Fellowship is a Protestant non-denominational church in Spindale, North Carolina. It has been the subject of several allegations describing it as a cult and accusing it of abuse.
Church music during the Reformation developed during the Protestant Reformation in two schools of thought, the regulative and normative principles of worship, based on reformers John Calvin and Martin Luther. They derived their concepts in response to the Catholic church music, which they found distracting and too ornate. Both principles also pursued use of the native tongue, either alongside or in place of liturgical Latin.
Samuel Russell Flippen was an American man who was executed in North Carolina for murder. Flippen was sentenced to death for the February 1994 murder of Britnie Nichole Hutton; his 2-year-old stepdaughter. Since his execution, there have been concerns raised about his conviction and whether he may have been innocent. He was convicted based on circumstantial evidence, had no criminal record, and maintained his innocence to the end. Some people opposed his execution, including Britnie Hutton's biological father. Flippen remains the last person executed in North Carolina.
