Tag: songs

Trinity Sunday – all age songs?

all age, children's ministry, church resources, hymns, worship

A friend was lamenting the lack of all age songs suitable for Trinity Sunday (at her church their service will also reflect on the church as a community in which all offer their gifts). If you’re stuck on the same thing, how about one of these:

First, singing in a round is a nice way of matching form and content when thinking about distinction and unity, so how about a round to the tune ‘Frere Jacques’?
Praise the Father, Praise the Father,
Praise the Son, Praise the Son,
Praise the Holy Spirit, Praise the Holy Spirit,
One in three, three in one.

Second, here’s one I made earlier, really based on 1 Corinthians 12. The tune is from the game Tetris, but is actually a Russian folk song.

Everyone here has a part to play as we love and serve the Lord today. Come to Jesus, follow in his way, in all we do and think and say. All are members of one body, building God's community!
Gathering song to the Tetris theme

Songs for advent and Christmas

advent, all age, children's ministry, christingle, christmas, church resources, hymns, worship

Here are all the songs I’ve written for:
– The Lighting of the Advent Wreath
– Christingle (whenever it’s held)
– Advent generally
– Christmas

We’ll kindle a flame (Tune: Colours of Day) – for Christingles held in Advent

Jesus, you’re coming, bringing the love
That draws the earth near to heaven above,
We’ll wait as the darkness covers the earth,
And long for the joy of remembering your birth.

We’ll kindle a flame to shine through the night,
Living our lives to shine with your light,
And sharing your love in all that we do,
your wonderful story is our story too.

Fruit of the seasons, blessings to share,
This wondrous creation placed in our care,
The city and forest, ocean and land,
The whole world is treasured in God’s gentle hand.

We’ll kindle a flame to shine through the night,
Living our lives to shine with your light,
And sharing your love in all that we do,
your wonderful story is our story too. 

Love like a circle, love never ends,
The love of a God who calls us your friends,
A love without price, a free gift of grace,
That holds all the world in a heavenly embrace.

We’ll kindle a flame to shine through the night,
Living our lives to shine with your light,
And sharing your love in all that we do,
Your wonderful story is our story too. 

An extra verse to ‘This little light of mine’ for use with the sparkly Christingle talk:

When I am feeling dull and grey,
and sunshine seems so far away,
when I don’t know quite where to start,
I remember the stardust in my heart:
all it needs is a tiny spark
to get me shining in the dark,
So Jesus, give me your fire divine
to let my little light shine!

Advent Wreath Song (to the tune ‘Father we place into your hands’)

Mothers and fathers of the faith, who lived in times of old,
Leaders and judges, kings and queens were faithful, true and bold,
Travelers, heroes, shepherds, all with stories to be told:
Still they show us how to follow you.

Prophets and seers who spoke the truth in answer to your call,
finding new ways to bring your word to people great and small,
living their lives to show your love was meant for one and all,
still they show us how to follow you.

John, in the desert calling out, ‘The Kingdom has come near.’
‘Come and repent, and be baptised, there’s nothing then to fear.’
‘Jesus is coming now, the One you’re waiting for is here.’
Still he shows us how to follow you.

Mother of Jesus, angels called her favoured, full of grace,
Holding the Son of God, the Prince of Peace, in her embrace,
She is the one whose ‘yes’ helped God to save the human race,
still she shows us how to follow you.

And this last verse, for Christmas day, is by my friend and colleague Gill Robertson:

Jesus our Saviour, born a king, we welcome you today,
Lord of all time, Immanuel, with joyful hearts we say:
You are the Christ who came to earth for us; and now we pray,
Help us all to daily follow you.

Advent Sunday song (Tune: Sing hosanna)

There’s a story to tell of creation,
And the patriarchs’ faith of old,
There are stories of prophets and sages,
We’ll repeat them ‘til the world’s been told:

Sing together! sing together!
Sing to welcome in the King of Kings.
Sing together! Sing together!
Sing to welcome in the King.

There are stories of sin and forgiveness,
Of a Kingdom of truth and love.
Of a girl who gave birth to a baby,
To fulfil God’s promise from above:

As God’s people prepare for his coming,
And remember those days long gone,
Our own stories are yet to be written,
As we live to make God’s kingdom come:

We will patiently wait for the morning,
Through the night we will watch and pray,
As we look for the light that is dawning,
We’ll be ready at the break of day:

Advent Hymn (Tune: Picardy)

Longing for a hope-filled morning,
Kingdom of the Son, draw near!
Waiting for the day soon dawning,
Light of love that casts out fear.
Dayspring, come from heav’n, in lowly birth,
Come to warm this cold, dark earth.

Sorrow through the world is sweeping,
Bitter conflict rages still,
Heaven hears its children weeping:
cost of humankind’s freewill.
Come, O Price* of Peace, in lowly birth,
Come to mend this broken earth.

Pattern of the world’s salvation,
God and human side by side.
Colour, language, creed or nation,
No more should the world divide:
Come, Emmanuel, in lowly birth,
Show how heav’n embraces earth.

*This word started off as a typo, but I quite like it, as it echoes the ‘cost’ of the previous line…  If you use the hymn, you can choose whether to use Price or Prince

Little baby (Tune: 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…

Here we are giving (Tune: Bunessan) – Christingle song for Christmas/Epiphany

Here we are giving
Out of our plenty,
Fruit of thanksgiving,
Tribute of love.
Hearts overflowing
Cannot stand empty
Constantly growing
With grace from above.

Gathered as one, and
Thankfully bringing
All that we are and
All that we do.
Serving and caring,
Praying and singing,
Building and sharing,
Offered to you.

Love beyond measure,
Total compassion,
We are your treasure,
Wonderfully giv’n.
Made in your likeness,
Imaged and fashioned,
Life that is priceless,
Valued by heaven.

Star of wonder (Tune: Sing Hosanna) – Christingle song for Epiphany

We give gold for a king, keep us serving,
We give gold for a king today,
As we give, it is Christ we are serving,
We’ll keep serving Jesus every day.

Star of wonder! Lead us onwards,
Show the way to find the world’s true light.
Star of wonder! Lead us onwards,
Shine around us through the night.

We bring incense today, keep us praying,
We bring incense to him today.
For the needs of the world, keep us praying.
Keep us praying to him every day.

Star of wonder…

We bring myrrh to remember his passion,
As he shared in his people’s pain,
In our lives we will show his compassion,
As we live for Jesus every day.

Star of wonder…

Hope for God’s world (Tune: Favourite Things) – Christingle song for Candlemas

Earth is so small
in the whole of creation,
Continents, oceans
And each unique nation,
Cultures and languages,
All so diverse,
All on one planet
In one universe!

Thanks be to God
For a million reasons,
Food on our plates
From the fruit of the seasons,
All that we have
Is a gift from above,
Plenty for all
if we share it with love.

Light of the world
For a people in sorrow,
Faith that can give us
Real hope for tomorrow,
Since on the cross
Jesus bore the world’s pain,
Bringing new life
At his rising again:

When the world seems
Full of trouble,
God will hear our prayer:
Our mission is living as lights in the world
for everyone everywhere!

Things pertaining to Advent

advent, Advent Illustrated, hymns, pictures, worship

Here’s a whole load of stuff for Advent, gathered in one place for your convenience!
Enjoy, and help yourself to anything you think might be useful.

Advent Wreath Song
to the tune ‘Father we place into your hands’

Mothers and fathers of the faith, who lived in times of old,
Leaders and judges, kings and queens were faithful, true and bold,
Travelers, heroes, shepherds, all with stories to be told:
Still they show us how to follow you.

Prophets and seers who spoke the truth in answer to your call,
finding new ways to bring your word to people great and small,
living their lives to show your love was meant for one and all,
still they show us how to follow you.

John, in the desert calling out, ‘The Kingdom has come near.’
‘Come and repent, and be baptised, there’s nothing then to fear.’
‘Jesus is coming now, the One you’re waiting for is here.’
Still he shows us how to follow you.

Mother of Jesus, angels called her favoured, full of grace,
Holding the Son of God, the Prince of Peace, in her embrace,
She is the one whose ‘yes’ helped God to save the human race,
still she shows us how to follow you.

And this last verse, for Christmas day, is by my friend and colleague Gill Robertson:

Jesus our Saviour, born a king, we welcome you today,
Lord of all time, Immanuel, with joyful hearts we say:
You are the Christ who came to earth for us; and now we pray,
Help us all to daily follow you.

 

This next song was intended to make a link between the ‘Jesse Tree’ / Salvation History pathway through advent, and the Advent Sunday theme of keeping alert and being ready.
Tune: Sing hosanna

There’s a story to tell of creation,
And the patriarchs’ faith of old,
There are stories of prophets and sages,
We’ll repeat them ‘til the world’s been told:

Sing together! sing together!
Sing to welcome in the King of Kings.
Sing together! Sing together!
Sing to welcome in the King.

There are stories of sin and forgiveness,
Of a Kingdom of truth and love.
Of a girl who gave birth to a baby,
To fulfil God’s promise from above:

As God’s people prepare for his coming,
And remember those days long gone,
Our own stories are yet to be written,
As we live to make God’s kingdom come:

We will patiently wait for the morning,
Through the night we will watch and pray,
As we look for the light that is dawning,
We’ll be ready at the break of day:

 

Advent Hymn
Tune: Picardy

Longing for a hope-filled morning,
Kingdom of the Son, draw near!
Waiting for the day soon dawning,
Light of love that casts out fear.
Dayspring, come from heav’n, in lowly birth,
Come to warm this cold, dark earth.

Sorrow through the world is sweeping,
Bitter conflict rages still,
Heaven hears its children weeping:
cost of humankind’s freewill.
Come, O Price* of Peace, in lowly birth,
Come to mend this broken earth.

Pattern of the world’s salvation,
God and human side by side.
Colour, language, creed or nation,
No more should the world divide:
Come, Emmanuel, in lowly birth,
Show how heav’n embraces earth.

*This word started off as a typo, but I quite like it, as it echoes the ‘cost’ of the previous line…  If you use the hymn, you can choose whether to use Price or Prince🙂  And thank you to the lovely Uptonpc for suggesting that Price could stay as an option!

 

Some pictures to go with the ‘O’ antiphons:

OSapientiawp-1450401867681.jpgORootOfJesseOKeyofDavidORexGentium2OOriensOEmmanuel

Which tune?

church resources, hymns, music, random thoughts, worship

I wrote a hymn a couple of months ago, to the tune ‘King’s Lynn’ (aka O God of earth and altar), and it turned out that quite a lot of people didn’t know the tune, and asked if it would go to anything else. The simple answer was, it can go to most 7676D* tunes.

(*If you’ve never known what those numbers and letter mean, they’re a shorthand description for the metre, in this case, it means that the first line is 7 syllables long, the next one is 6 syllables, etc, and the D stands for ‘double’, meaning that it’s an 8 line hymn in which the metre is the same in the second half as in the first half. Clear as mud. What it doesn’t tell you is that my particular words have an upbeat (technically known as an anacrusis) which means that the accent falls on the second syllable rather than the first – in the trade, this is known as ‘iambic’. So the full description would be 7676D iambic. )

Another complication is that you can sometimes ‘fudge’ it so that a metre that technically has the wrong number of syllables can be used, by the judicious use of slurs and by splitting longer notes into two.  Consider the last line of Londonderry air (O Danny Boy), which has 12 notes, of which three are usually slurred together – there is nothing to stop a hymnwriter removing that slur, and having a 12 syllable line instead of the usual 10. Consider also the very popular tune ‘slane’ (Lord of all hopefulness), of which the second line has a two-note upbeat, which is generally slurred – there is nothing to stop two very short syllables being used instead, as long as a congregation will be able to intuit that this is what’s going on at a first read-through.

But even if you find a tune for which the metre fits perfectly, will it have the right mood / vibe?  Take ‘O Jesus I have promised’ as an example. It’s also 7676D iambic, and there are at least three tunes that are commonly used, each with their own personality. Two of those tunes would be fine for the hymn I wrote, and one would definitely not be, because it’s way to ‘bouncy’ and would jar horribly with the mood of the words.

My hymn was used in a broadcast act of worship a couple of weeks after it was written, and the producer used my nominated tune, King’s Lynn.  But it’s about to be used in another broadcast, and this time the producer has gone with a different tune: Corvedale. As it happens it’s actually originally written for 8686D words, with a two-syllable up-beat – the addition of a slur at the start of each line means it fits my words really well in terms of metre. Corvedale is a triple time tune, so is instantly less foursquare, and as a major key tune (though with some lovely harmonies) it immediately feels more positive. What does this do to the words, and how we hear them?  Under what circumstances might one prefer King’s Lynn? And when might Corvedale fit the bill?

A final factor to consider is whether the tune itself has cultural resonances that add something to the way we experience the words.  Consider Richard Bewes’ metrical setting of God is our strength and refuge, which he set to the tune ‘Dambusters’ from the popular war film.  This, I think, leads those who know the hymn to see that psalm in a particular light, casting the ‘refuge’ and ‘strength’ as a strongly defended castle, possibly surrounded by an army, rather than as something more peaceful and even homely.  The tune can hugely affect how we hear the words. Consider also what it means to write a set of words to, say, ‘Thaxted’ (usually sung to the words, I vow to thee my country’) – that may well also affect how we experience the lyrics, and may also limit what sort of words are deemed appropriate for that particular tune. What feelings are evoked by tunes usually used in Christmas carols? Or for hymns often used at funerals?  Are those resonances helpful, or do they conflict with what the new lyrics are trying to do?  I found G K Chesterton’s words, O God of earth and altar, very powerful, and the tune King’s Lynn will always have GKC’s words somewhere in it for me – I was glad to borrow that frame of reference for my own words.

As it happens, there’s a third tune now being used for my own hymn, and it’s in a completely different idiom – mostly I write to well known traditional hymn tunes, and this new tune is a specially written one, by @mrwiblog in the style of a more modern worship song. And I really love it – it has energy, and the right balance of hope and emotion. You can listen to it here.

The lovely @artsyhonker also wrote another tune for some of my words – as a lyrics-writer there’s no greater honour than to have a composer write a tune specially, so a huge thank you to Kathryn, and to Chris.