ALBUMS
 MUSIC FROM THE CELTIC SERVICEThe Lutheran Ceili Orchestra was formed at St. Marcus Lutheran Chuch in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, back in the 90's to accompany an annual Irish-themed service around St. Patty's Day. I came onboard in the early 2000's after the group were already a well-established tradition there. Before long I started to wonder if The Orchestra was something that other churches might be interested in using, so I organized a few of us (those who were generally free on the weekends) into a travelling group. Our first appearance outside of St. Marcus was about three years ago at Faith Lutheran Church in Fond du Lac - we played a tune or two from the balcony on Christmas Eve. It went over well enough that we figured we must be on to something! I sent out one mass email to pastors in Wisconsin to let them know who we were if they were interested. BLESSINGSBy the summer of 2009 we had played in over 50 different WELS churches around the country. Around that time I was organizing a service with a pastor in Illinois. He asked me offhand if we had a special service that we used when we travelled. We didn't, but it got me thinking. How neat would it be if we had a Celtic service that fit our unique Celtic sound into a meaningful context! I started researching the history of the Christian Church in Ireland and Scotland, and was thrilled to find a huge amount of information on its traditions and characters. I realized how little most people (including myself) know about guys like "Saint Patrick," and how wrong many of our assumptions were. I think Lutherans might have a tendancy to sign any non-Bible person with "Saint" in front of their name off as a Catholic thing. However Patrick wrote down his beliefs, and as a Lutheran I not only found myself agreeing with his views but also feeling inspired by them! So that summer I decided to write a Christ-centered Celtic Service based around the traditional Lutheran format but using the invocations, prayers, verses, lyrics, tunes, and spirit of ancient Celtic Christianity.  As I write this, we've led this service in over 30 WELS churches in many different states. We've been thrilled with the response - the introspection and conversation that it has encouraged in Lutherans. It's quite a thing hear the story of common faith shared by us and people over a thousand years ago. In ancient Ireland converts to Christianity believed the message of the Bible, prayed these prayers, and sang these songs at pain of death and sacrificed everything to spread the Word of forgiveness and salvation in Christ. How can it not be a special thing to connect with those people - those courageous believers that by faith carried the torch of the Gospel through a land and time as dark and dangerous as they were beautiful? We recorded this CD to leave you with these thoughts that - God-willing - this service inspires. Although it has gone through many permutations, hymn substitutions, and so on based on where and when we've used it, these tunes are what we feel are the core of the service. We hope that the music and Message they contain is as inspiring for you as they have been for us. -Joey Schumann  TRACK LISTPRESERVICE MUSIC:
SERVICE MUSIC:
POSTSERVICE MUSIC:
BONUS TRACK
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