Worship at St. Gregory's focuses on participation by the congregation, with special attention paid to welcoming and involving first-time visitors. Participation takes many forms, such as singing, processing in step, simple congregational dance, sharing stories and prayers, and touch. The environment incorporates large-scale icons and other artwork with meditation bells and incense, and so involves all the senses. Our entire congregation sings throughout the service, unaccompanied and in harmony. Clear directions, easy-to-read sheet music, and responsive acoustics help our people sing and hear each other sing. Having strong singers nearby is also helpful, and to this end our choir members sit at random amongst the people. With a little choir preparation in advance, congregational part singing goes quite smoothly. Before taking our seats, we begin each service with a brief rehearsal. As we stand in a circle, the music director previews some of the day's music, guiding and encouraging the people as they practice it. Here, too, we introduce our style of singing four-part hymns: the first verse in unison, then breaking into harmony for succeeding verses. And the congregation learns by heart a simple Alleluia to sing while everyone processes to their seats for the liturgy of the Word. Over 21 years we have collected, created, and arranged a variety of music that works well in our liturgy. All the pieces in this volume are intended to be sung by the entire congregation, unaccompanied. We encourage you to try using them in this way. Don't assume that because your congregation has always sung to an accompanying instrument they can't sing without it! Most of the music will suit smaller services with as few as four people-the melodies are strong and can stand alone without harmony. Some longer pieces also work well as choir anthems. For music that accompanies movement we use drums and simple rhythm instruments; drummers should be experienced enough to lead the singing with a steady beat. We have employed simple, clear musical notation, fitting the skills of ordinary, musically literate people rather than trained musicians. (For example, courtesy accidentals appear without parentheses lest less expert singers wonder if the flat is optional or required.) We have added two special symbols not in common use. In chants, an asterisk below a blank measure indicates a pause to breathe together. (We sing a lot of chant and work to achieve natural speech rhythms and breathing.) Second, when the melody occurs in the tenor voice, a pointing hand marks this melody line. The pieces are arranged here just as we use them at St. Gregory's main Eucharist service. The Table of Contents provides a brief liturgical outline and lists a range of pieces in each section from which we choose every Sunday. We enjoy mixing up musical styles and periods within one service. The companion CD to this volume demonstrates the typical diversity of our choices. Music leaders who use this book will find it helpful to have the CD as well- and to know that all the music on it was performed by St. Gregory's all-volunteer choir.