Heavenward
Walter John Mathams was a 19th-century British song of praise writer, soldier and minister, who took part in Regent's Park College in London in the 1870s as a Baptist minister student before converting to the Established Church of Scotland in the year 1900. He also established the Ladies' Guild of the Sailors' Society.
After journeying to the sea early on in life, he found himself cooperating in the Yukon Gold Rush. After being unsuccessful to find his fortune, he returned to England by way of Palestine. Once back in the United Kingdom, he started studying for Baptist ministry. In the year 1874, he joined Regent’s Park Baptist College, and subsequently began to be the pastor at Preston, Lancashire. In the year 1879, his health declining, he went for a while to Australia.
Returning to England, he began to be, in the year 1883, minister at Falkirk, Scotland, and at Birmingham in the year 1888. He joined the ministry of the Established Church of Scotland in 1900, worked for three years as chaplain to the Royal Scots Borderers, in Egypt. In 1906, he began to be an associate minister at Stronsay, in the Orkney Islands. In 1909, he was ordained a full minister at Saint Columba’s Church, Mallaig, on the North West Scottish coast. In 1919, he retired and transferred to Roslin, close Edinburgh. After his wife Alexa Jane passed away, he transferred to Swanage, Dorset.
George Lomas was born in the year 1834 at Birch Hall, Bolton, Lancashire, England and passed away in the year 1884 at Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England.
A pupil of William Sterndale Bennett and Charles Steggall, Lomas got his BMus degree from New College, Oxford. He played the organ at Didsbury Parish Church, and at Emmanuel Church, Barlow Moor, Manchester (in the year 1858 to 1884).
George Lomas was born in England and was a volunteer organist for 25 years before beginning to be a professional musician. He got his Bachelor of Arts degree in music at age 45, only 5 years before his demise.
The Presbyterian Association of Musicians or PAM is a nationwide group of the Presbyterian Church (United States of America) for individuals who are included in the areas of the Reformed Christian glory, the Church song, and the liturgical arts. The national offices for this 1,600 member organization are situated in Louisville at the National Office of the Presbyterian Church. "Members of the Presbyterian Association of Musicians involve choir directors, organists, ministers, and other persons interested in the standard and integrity of music in the worship experience."
PAM's foundations are rooted in the Montreat Worship and Music Conference, which was made to provide professional support for Presbyterian musicians. The Presbyterian General Assembly asked the Board of Christian Education to make a proposal to create opportunities to teach church musicians. On August 2, 1956 the 1st conference was held at the Montreat Conference Center. The objective was to provide the complete and practical support to all the individuals concerned with better church song.
After 14 years of the Montreat Worship and Music Conference, the Board of Christian Education was not able to pursue financial help of the discussion. An ad hoc committee was established to make an association for the musicians. On July 26, 1970 the Presbyterian Association of Musicians was organized to help of the Montreat Worship and Music Conference.
The weeklong Montreat Worship and Music Conference is held at Montreat Conference Center and is redone the following week. This inter-generational conference provides a wide variety of classes and ensembles that offer musical, liturgical and theological instruction.
The Mo-Ranch or Presbyterian Association of Musicians Conference (MoPAM) is the union of two worship and music conferences. The yearly weeklong Mo Ranch conference merged with the PAM West conference in the year 2009 to create an annual worship and music conference at Mo Ranch.
PAM has held biennial National Gatherings for church professionals since the year 2005 in partnership with Presbyterian Seminaries. These gatherings, commonly held in February, are 2 to 3 day conferences focusing on topics that are of significance to church musicians, pastors and professors who are working in the church. The gatherings are welcome to all church professionals.
The 2004 Presbyterian General Assembly gave approval to the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation, the Presbyterian Association of Musicians, and the Office of Theology and Worship to start research into the feasibility of a new Presbyterian hymnal. The results of this feasibility study were to be reported to the 217th General Assembly in the year 2006 which granted agreement for the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation to analyze, develop, and publish a new songbook.
The Life of Jesus Christ as a narrative cycle in Christian art consists of a number of different subjects portraying the events from the existence of Jesus on earth. They are distinguished from the many other subjects in art, showing the everlasting life of Christ, such as Christ in Majesty, and also many types of portrait or sacred subjects without a narrative element.
They are often gathered in a series of works in a variety of media, from book illustrations to large cycles of wall paintings, and most of the subjects forming the story cycles have also been the subjects of individual works, though with significantly varying frequency. By around 1,000, the option of scenes for the remainder of the Middle Ages began to be largely settled in the Western and Eastern churches, and was mostly based on the important feasts celebrated in the church calendars.
The most usual subjects were gathered around the birth and childhood of Jesus, and the Passion of Christ, leading to his Crucifixion and Resurrection. Many cycles covered only one of these groups, and others merged the Life of the Virgin with that of Jesus. Subjects showing the existence of Jesus during his active life as a professor, before the days of the Passion, were relatively few in medieval art, for a number of reasons. Since the Renaissance, and in Protestant art, the number of subjects rose considerably, but cycles in painting began to be rarer, though they remained usual in prints and especially book illustrations.
