At 10:30 morning worship Sunday, August 7, Tyrone Presbyterians will focus “A Spotlight on Spirituals” and also will welcome Tyrone singer, actor, pianist and florist, Alice Marie Mulhollan.
Along with her sister Anita Mulhollan Wray and mother Ferroll Mulhollan, Alice will present a special trio selection in the service and will lead worshippers in singing the 1932 Thomas Dorsey spiritual entitled, Precious Lord, Take My Hand.
Jazz pianist Thomas Dorsey composed that beloved hymn in 1932, in despair about the untimely death of his young wife and newborn child.
A 1976 graduate of Tyrone Area High School, guest soloist Alice Mulhollan spent 20 years as a landscape designer in Williamsport before returning to her hometown in 1996 to open Alice’s Flower and Gift Shop at 857 Washington Avenue.
Besides serving as part-time pianist at the Bald Eagle United Methodist Church, Alice has played an active role in Tyrone Community Players.
“A Spotlight on Spirituals” will open with Kum Ba Yah, translated Come By Here. One hundred, forty-eight years ago in 1857, when Tyrone Presbyterians first established their church in this northern Pennsylvania town, southern American slaves sang Kum Ba Yah in order to invite fellow blacks to Come By Here and join them for services before a day of back-breaking labor under the blistering sun in southern plantation fields.
“A Spotlight on Spirituals” will continue as church organist Richard Merryman present the African-American hymn, Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen. Without a doubt, this spiritual captures the truth of those words from the prophet Isaiah, Surely He Has Borne Our Griefs and Carried Our Sorrows.
Merryman will perform that beloved spiritual on the 1930 Baldwin Grand Piano located in the church sanctuary. As they hear that African-American hymn from that 75-year-old instrument, Presbyterians will recall the faithful generosity of church member Mrs. Adda Gray, who gave the Baldwin sanctuary piano and also donated all the land for Tyrone’s Gray Memorial Football Field.
“A Spotlight on Spirituals” will conclude as worshippers lift their voices in that awesome black praise chorus, He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands. To accompany this closing hymn, Merryman will use stops on the church’s Allen Digital Computer Organ associated with swinging black gospel music.
Even as the summer of 2005 edges toward autumn, Presbyterian Pastor Robert Dunkelberger encourages lovers of spirituals and those searching for a spiritual purpose in their lives to attend 10:30 morning worship on this Sunday, August 7 as Tyrone Presbyterians plan a morning of choral and organ music designed to uplift any soul or spirit.
