Baptism of Christ
Category: Other cool stuff
Lent hymn
Written for Helen and her churches. Tune is Slane.
Lord of our life, our beginning and end,
Our Father, our shepherd, our Saviour and friend,
We look to your teaching in each fresh new day
To lead us and guide us and show us your way.
Ten laws to teach us to live in your love,
Ten ways to make earth more like heaven above,
Ten rules to inspire all we think, say and do,
To help us be faithful in following you.
You are our safety, our great mother hen,
Whenever we wander you call us again,
We’ll always be drawn to your loving embrace
To nestle beneath the soft wings of your grace.
This is our story, and this is our song:
For we are your people, to you we belong,
Wherever life takes us, in all that we do,
Our hearts will find peace when we’re resting in you.
Things pertaining to Christmas
Now it’s almost advent, here are some Christmassy things that might be worth sharing.
A simple Christmas carol to the tune of the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy:
Little baby, sweetly slumbering,
Cradled and cuddled in Mary’s loving arms.
In the sky are angels gathering,
but for now, here below, all is still and calm.
Little baby, our Emmanuel,
God with us, one of us, born to be our king.
Little baby, while you slumber,
Far above you angels sing.
We know you came to save us all…
But how can God become so small…?
For God so loved all he had made
He sent his Son the world to save……
Little baby…
An easy Christmas song for children to sing
The tune is ‘Here we go round the mulberry bush’.
Sing of the time the angel came, the angel came, the angel came,
Sing of the time the angel came to bring the news to Mary.
Sing of the birth at Bethlehem, at Bethlehem, at Bethlehem,
Sing of the birth at Bethlehem, the baby in the stable.
Sing of shepherds from the hills, from the hills, from the hills,
Sing of the shepherds from the hills, who came to worship Jesus.
Sing of the brightly shining star, the shining star, the shining star,
Sing of the brightly shining star, that led the kings to Jesus.
Sing of the love of God on earth, God on earth, God on earth,
Sing of the love of God on earth, that brings us close to heaven.
The easiest paper nativity scene ever – instructions and template
Some Christmassy pictures of Mary:
And some other general Christmas doodles / images:
Some more clipart-y images:
A not-very-good sonnet about Christmas:
Prophetic visions since the world began
(so long before salvation’s human birth)
would speak of God’s tremendous loving plan
for heav’n to touch the long-estrangèd earth.
Those ancient words at last began to be
in flesh and skin and bone and blood unfurled
In maiden womb and half-made family –
so heaven stooped to touch a fallen world.
Amongst the stable beasts behind the inn,
the baby’s eyes saw first a loving mother;
and even though their world was full of sin,
yet heav’n touched earth for each in one another.
Tonight we cry for peace, goodwill to men,
and for God’s heaven to touch his earth again.
And a couple of links to things I’ve come up with for Christingle:
The original ‘Sparkly Christingle Talk’ (the one with the iron powder)
How to make a Christingle: some prayerful reflections
Looking slightly further ahead:
A Very Simple Epiphany Song (to the tune of Sing Hosanna)
A hymn about light (that might do for Epiphany if you really squint)
And a picture:
Christmas carol – Sugar Plum Fairy
This was written for a friend, who wanted a new carol to sing as part of a nativity play. It goes to the tune of the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (from Tschaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite). Nothing profound here, just something to meet a particular need.
Little baby, sweetly slumbering,
Cradled and cuddled in Mary’s loving arms.
In the sky are angels gathering,
but for now, here below, all is still and calm.
Little baby, our Emmanuel,
God with us, one of us, born to be our king.
Little baby, while you slumber,
Far above you angels sing.
We know you came to save us all…
But how can God become so small…?
For God so loved all he had made
He sent his Son the world to save……
Little baby…
Hymn tune
I don’t normally write hymn tunes, because I’ve generally found that people are pretty resistant to learning new ones, but this one occurred to me earlier today. It would be a less attractive stunt double for Guiting Power if you wrote some words to that tune and then realised that you weren’t allowed to use it 🙂
If you have a look at it and realise that I’ve plagiarised it from someone else, please be assured that it’s an accident, and do let me know – I have a memory like a sieve.
Here it is as a pdf: Wulfstan_Way
And as a picture:
reverendally.org 
