Jesus is Lord! Creation's voice proclaims it / JESUS IS LORD
We Have An Anchor / WILL YOUR ANCHOR HOLD
May the Mind of Christ, my Saviour / ST LEONARDS
The Lord's my Shepherd (Stuart Townend version)
We have a Gospel to Proclaim / GERMANY
Come ye faithful, raise the anthem*
Amazing Grace
Forth in Thy Name, O Lord I go
* I remember this one from primary school assemblies and moved to wonder what they expected 8 year olds to make of terms like “Consubstantial, Co-eternal.”
Patrick Lee wrote some fine verses for St Peter and Paul. To be sung to Sine Nomine.
Here are vv1,4 and 5.
Into a world of darkness since the fall
new light had dawned, two champions heard the call:
Peter the rock, and Paul once known as Saul!
Alleluia, alleluia.
On each a lifelong mission was conferred,
“Go tell the nations all that you have heard
of God made known through Christ, th’incarnate Word.”
Alleluia, alleluia.
Their work accomplished, called to their reward,
one crucified, one martyred by the sword,
their deaths bore witness to the risen Lord:
Alleluia, alleluia.
Patrick Lee wrote some fine verses for St Peter and Paul. To be sung to Sine Nomine.
Here are vv1,4 and 5.
Into a world of darkness since the fall
new light had dawned, two champions heard the call:
Peter the rock, and Paul once known as Saul!
Alleluia, alleluia.
On each a lifelong mission was conferred,
“Go tell the nations all that you have heard
of God made known through Christ, th’incarnate Word.”
Alleluia, alleluia.
Their work accomplished, called to their reward,
one crucified, one martyred by the sword,
their deaths bore witness to the risen Lord:
Alleluia, alleluia.
Thanks for that @Alan29 - good stuff, and worthy of being more widely sung.
You shall go out with joy - The Trees of the Field**
** chosen by a member of the youth group, who as far as I could see, wasn't actually there ... It involved clapping, in which I did not join.
A favorite among my people. And yes, it does call for clapping, but after all, the clapping goes with the text—“And all the trees of the field will clap their hands.” (It also calls for getting faster on each repetition.)
Today we had:
“Now Thank We All Our God”/NUN DANKET ALLE GOTT
“Words Were Spoken, Loaves Were Broken”/BEACH SPRING
“Let Us Break Bread Together”*
“When We Are Living” (Pues si vivimos)/SOMOS DEL SEÑOR
* Sung without accompaniment during Communion. I was serving, and got to hear the maybe 800 voices singing, not too loudly and in harmony. Beautiful!
Our organist is currently in hospital but before he was admitted he recorded the accompaniment to the (pre-chosen, by him) hymns for the next few weeks. I can hardly bear to write this, but the final 'hymn' this morning (apropos of what I haven't a clue) was the sacrilegious anthem 'I vow to thee my country'. He might be a secret fascist but I charitably prefer to believe that as a musician he just likes the rather splendid tune. Which as it was written by Conrad Noel's director of music was almost certainly not intended for those words.
Yesterday we had:
Here to the house of God we come
When I receive the peace of Christ
Beauty for brokenness
Be thou my vision
How great thou art (for which it is really hard to get an accompaniment that works; pitch, tempo, syncopation, something always seems "off")
We ended the service with We Shall Overcome yesterday. Not a hymn, I know, but it seemed just right for all kinds of reasons, and the average age there was just right for singing it with feeling, too.
If it’s really the tune he likes then Michael Perry’s ‘O God beyond all praising’ might be a more than acceptable alternative.
I love the tune as it appears in “The Planets,” but I must confess I don’t like it at all as a hymn tune, regardless of the text.
Holst did not AFAIK write it for use as a hymn tune - I wonder what he thought of the words written later? Possibly they are in accordance with the spirit of the times, but O! how out-of-date, and even offensive, they seem today...
I was amused to see that the Old-Catholic Cathedral in Utrecht had Praise, my soul, the King of Heaven as the entrance hymn, and Fight the good fight as the recessional - both in English, to the proper tunes, FTGF being sung to Duke Street, as approved by Our Lord and His Blessed Mother. I was therefore able to warble along, these being two of my favourites.
The O-Cs are holding a Summer School in Theology, which brings in people from various countries, and the priest welcomed them - in English - at the beginning of the Mass. The Epistle was read in English, too.
Holst did not AFAIK write it for use as a hymn tune - I wonder what he thought of the words written later? Possibly they are in accordance with the spirit of the times, but O! how out-of-date, and even offensive, they seem today...
No, he wrote it as a theme in “The Planets.” But Holst himself, a few years after he wrote “The Planets,” adapted that theme for “I Vow to Thee My Country.” Ralph Vaughan Williams included it in Songs of Praise in 1926. I’m sure it was in the spirit of the times, but not one of either composer’s better decisions.
We ended the service with We Shall Overcome yesterday. Not a hymn, I know, but it seemed just right for all kinds of reasons, and the average age there was just right for singing it with feeling, too.
It’s actually in my tribe’s hymnal, and I think it can qualify as a spiritual song if not a hymn, especially if certain verses are included. (The version in our hymnal includes “God will see us through today.”)
Perhaps Holst would have approved of Perry's O God beyond all praising, though.
He might have. Though given that he also approved of “I Vow to Thee My Country,” I’m not sure how much weight to accord his approval. As I said above, regardless of the text, I think it was a mistake to adapt the Jupiter theme for use as a hymn tune to start with.
Prolonging this tangent a little, I suppose Holst may have approved of I vow to thee, my country, having been prevented by poor health from active service in WW1.
Either way, his music is sublime, and deserves better words than IVTTMC...
Prolonging this tangent a little, I suppose Holst may have approved of I vow to thee, my country, having been prevented by poor health from active service in WW1.
Either way, his music is sublime, and deserves better words than IVTTMC...
I don't know much about Holst, but I can understand how at the end of WW1 many people, including him, could be moved by the words of IVTTMC. Nationalist sentiment is a powerful thing. But it's not Christian, and certainly not in keeping with the sort of Christianity espoused by Conrad Noel, who was vociferously anti-nationalist. It's hard (and wrong) for us right now not to sympathise with the people of Ukraine and similarly oppressed nations, but the minute that sympathy crosses into flag-waving 'my country right or wrong' territory alarm bells should ring.
The most intolerable bit of the intolerable first verse of IVTT is the phrase, 'the love that asks no question'. Heaven forbid! Love commands us to ask questions. Even of our Christian faith, and certainly of human ideologies and structures.
Prolonging this tangent a little, I suppose Holst may have approved of I vow to thee, my country, having been prevented by poor health from active service in WW1.
Either way, his music is sublime, and deserves better words than IVTTMC...
I don't know much about Holst, but I can understand how at the end of WW1 many people, including him, could be moved by the words of IVTTMC. Nationalist sentiment is a powerful thing. But it's not Christian, and certainly not in keeping with the sort of Christianity espoused by Conrad Noel, who was vociferously anti-nationalist. It's hard (and wrong) for us right now not to sympathise with the people of Ukraine and similarly oppressed nations, but the minute that sympathy crosses into flag-waving 'my country right or wrong' territory alarm bells should ring.
The most intolerable bit of the intolerable first verse of IVTT is the phrase, 'the love that asks no question'. Heaven forbid! Love commands us to ask questions. Even of our Christian faith, and certainly of human ideologies and structures.
Yes, yes yes.
I would have a hard time of it in places where national flags are around the altar and where patriotic hymns are sung on national holidays.
((quoting Stercus Tauri) We ended the service with We Shall Overcome yesterday. Not a hymn, I know, but it seemed just right for all kinds of reasons, and the average age there was just right for singing it with feeling, too.)
It’s actually in my tribe’s hymnal, and I think it can qualify as a spiritual song if not a hymn, especially if certain verses are included. (The version in our hymnal includes “God will see us through today.”)
Unless we are black or from a truly persecuted minority, it does not seem nor feel right to sing this song, coming as it does from the perspective of slaves seeking freedom. It's arguably cultural appreciation and many of us simply don't know or realise how privilege we are in comparison
((quoting Stercus Tauri) We ended the service with We Shall Overcome yesterday. Not a hymn, I know, but it seemed just right for all kinds of reasons, and the average age there was just right for singing it with feeling, too.)
It’s actually in my tribe’s hymnal, and I think it can qualify as a spiritual song if not a hymn, especially if certain verses are included. (The version in our hymnal includes “God will see us through today.”)
Unless we are black or from a truly persecuted minority, it does not seem nor feel right to sing this song, coming as it does from the perspective of slaves seeking freedom. It's arguably cultural appreciation and many of us simply don't know or realise how privilege we are in comparison
One of the events of the preceding week had been the attack on a woman teaching gender studies at the University of Waterloo, and I think this, among other things, was on the minister's mind.
((quoting Stercus Tauri) We ended the service with We Shall Overcome yesterday. Not a hymn, I know, but it seemed just right for all kinds of reasons, and the average age there was just right for singing it with feeling, too.)
It’s actually in my tribe’s hymnal, and I think it can qualify as a spiritual song if not a hymn, especially if certain verses are included. (The version in our hymnal includes “God will see us through today.”)
Unless we are black or from a truly persecuted minority, it does not seem nor feel right to sing this song, coming as it does from the perspective of slaves seeking freedom. It's arguably cultural appreciation and many of us simply don't know or realise how privilege we are in comparison
One of the events of the preceding week had been the attack on a woman teaching gender studies at the University of Waterloo, and I think this, among other things, was on the minister's mind.
I can see the point but is the Minister or anyone in the church, the one being oppressed or attacked? If not, then perhaps another way of expressing support is better.
Context is important, and there are bound to be times when otherwise inappropriate (possibly) hymns/songs will be appropriate.
Yes I can see that. I would think that it has to be very finely considered otherwise a group of wealthy white people singing "we shall overcome" looks very inappropriate and makes the whole thing a laughing stock. It might just provide ammunition for the detractors.
((quoting Stercus Tauri) We ended the service with We Shall Overcome yesterday. Not a hymn, I know, but it seemed just right for all kinds of reasons, and the average age there was just right for singing it with feeling, too.)
It’s actually in my tribe’s hymnal, and I think it can qualify as a spiritual song if not a hymn, especially if certain verses are included. (The version in our hymnal includes “God will see us through today.”)
Unless we are black or from a truly persecuted minority, it does not seem nor feel right to sing this song, coming as it does from the perspective of slaves seeking freedom. It's arguably cultural appreciation and many of us simply don't know or realise how privilege we are in comparison
One of the events of the preceding week had been the attack on a woman teaching gender studies at the University of Waterloo, and I think this, among other things, was on the minister's mind.
I can see the point but is the Minister or anyone in the church, the one being oppressed or attacked? If not, then perhaps another way of expressing support is better.
I saw it as a communal, rather than an individual response to oppression; the church acting as part of the community through song.
((quoting Stercus Tauri) We ended the service with We Shall Overcome yesterday. Not a hymn, I know, but it seemed just right for all kinds of reasons, and the average age there was just right for singing it with feeling, too.)
It’s actually in my tribe’s hymnal, and I think it can qualify as a spiritual song if not a hymn, especially if certain verses are included. (The version in our hymnal includes “God will see us through today.”)
Unless we are black or from a truly persecuted minority, it does not seem nor feel right to sing this song, coming as it does from the perspective of slaves seeking freedom. It's arguably cultural appreciation and many of us simply don't know or realise how privilege we are in comparison
That’s actually not the perspective it comes from, or at least not the only perspective. “We Shall Overcome” emerged from a number of sources, one of the most direct being a workers’ song in the early 1900s, which was associated with labor unions. Pete Seeger, The Weavers and others picked it up from the labor movement and widened its popularity as a protest song in the mid 1900s. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, it began to be sung at Civil Rights rallies and marches, most notably when Joan Baez led the crowd in singing it at the 1963 March on Washington.
The song is definitely linked to the Civil Rights Movement, but it is widely understood in the US as a song of protest and solidarity, and it has always belonged to a wider culture than just African Americans.
I actually don't mind IVTTMC once in a blue moon (on Remembrance Sunday, for instance); like many other hymns, it's "of its time", and it is a Jolly Good Tune. Just my 2p.
Going back to what we sang - our offerings this morning were:
Praise the Lord, ye heavens adore him - Austria* Jesus shall reign - Truro Have faith in God, my heart - Doncaster** Meekness and majesty - This is your God*** The Spirit lives to set us free - Walk in the Light
* No - I don't mind singing that either, under the abovementioned JGT principle.
** I really should have picked up a music edition of the hymn-book; we didn't have a choir practice yesterday because the choirmistress is away, and we had The Organist Who Probably Does Practise But Isn't Very Good today, and although we've had the tune Doncaster before, I still don't really know how it's supposed to go ...
*** I've never come across this one before, but was beginning to get how it went by the fourth verse.
Meekness and Majesty was a staple at St Helens in the 1990s, we seemed to sing it every week. (I categorise all worship songs and hymns by the place I first heard them, I even hear them in my head sung by specific congregations and people)
All Age Eucharist at Lancaster Priory, reasonably well done given the constraints of the form. We sang:
Make way
I danced in the morning
Jesus Christ is waiting
Jesus shall reign
Sung Gloria, Sanctus and Benedictus, Agnus Dei, not sure of setting.
At Our Place this morning:
Happy Day / Tim Hughes & Ben Cantelon
Shine (from the inside out) / Nick Jackson
How Deep The Father's Love For Us / Stuart Townend
The Power of Your Love / Geoff Bullock
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling / BEECHER
Meekness and Majesty was a staple at St Helens in the 1990s, we seemed to sing it every week. (I categorise all worship songs and hymns by the place I first heard them, I even hear them in my head sung by specific congregations and people)
We do it as the entrance hymn on Maundy Thursday because it references the foot washing. Gets Mass off to a cracking start, too.
I have just discovered this (genuine) hymn by Isaac Watts which we definitely did not sing this morning but which I share for your general edification.
Blest is the man whose bowels move
And melt with pity to the poor
Whose soul, by sympathizing love
Feels what his fellow saints endure
His heart contrives for their relief
More good than his own hands can do
He, in the time of general grief
Shall find the Lord has bowels, too.
Hallelujah! Sing to Jesus -Hyfrydol
Jesus Shall Reign -didn't work out which tune this was meant to be
May the Mind of Christ, our Saviour -St. Leonards
Love Divine, all Loves Excelling -Blaenwern
Well, nothing that can compare with bowels, but today we had:
“Sing Glory to the Name of Gods (Ps 29)/LASST UNS ERFREUEN
“In Christ We Live” (John Bell)
“In a Deep, Unbounded Darkness”/DIVINUM MYSTERIUM
“I Depend Upon Your Faithfulness (Tu fidelidad)/TU FIDELIDAD
We will extol you, ever-blessed Lord (Old 124th)
Thou art the Way, to thee alone (St. James)
Father, we thank thee who hast planted (Rendez à Dieu)
Jesus shall reign where-e'er the sun (Duke Street)
Choral:
Schütz: Der Herr ist groß und sehr löblich, SWV 286
Handel: Come unto him, all ye that labour (from Messiah)
I have just discovered this (genuine) hymn by Isaac Watts which we definitely did not sing this morning but which I share for your general edification.
Blest is the man whose bowels move
And melt with pity to the poor
Whose soul, by sympathizing love
Feels what his fellow saints endure
His heart contrives for their relief
More good than his own hands can do
He, in the time of general grief
Shall find the Lord has bowels, too.
Some years ago a member of our congregation had an operation for bowel cancer, and a stoma fitted. A year later she had a stoma reversal. Her husband, instead of messaging that the operation had proved successful, messaged a very excited and happy "C has done a poo!!"
Amidst the general rejoicing someone suggested having that hymn the following Sunday. I think C herself squashed that suggestion.
"Love divine all loves excelling" / Hyfrydol
Psalm 45:11-18 recited.
"How sweet the name of Jesus sounds" / St. Peter
"I heard the voice of Jesus say" / The Third Tune
"Father we thank thee who hast planted" / Rendez a Dieu
"Lord of all hopefulness, Lord of all joy" / Slane
"Jesus shall reign where'er the sun" / Duke Street
I have just discovered this (genuine) hymn by Isaac Watts which we definitely did not sing this morning but which I share for your general edification.
Blest is the man whose bowels move
And melt with pity to the poor
Whose soul, by sympathizing love
Feels what his fellow saints endure
His heart contrives for their relief
More good than his own hands can do
He, in the time of general grief
Shall find the Lord has bowels, too.
As someone who looks after elderly parents, that resonates with me.
I am convinced that the peevish Mr Woodhouse in Jane Austen's Emma was just constipated the entire time. It would explain a lot.
As for the Lord having bowels, that leads me to all those references to being 'seated on the throne' and of course 'the trump of God' ... but perhaps that's for another thread.
Many years ago I was meeting another Minister at a church. There was an (elderly) Ladies' Meeting taking place in an adjoining room.
My colleague and I were young, irreverent and rather dismissive of older folk. "You wait", he said, "In a moment they'll sing 'God is still on the throne'." And, right on cue, they did!.
But perhaps we're straying a bit from the purpose of this thread ...
I was listening to a radio game show on Monday evening while cooking the tea and someone was challenged to sing The Teddy Bears' Picnic to the tune of Hallelujah. It was absolutely hilarious.
However, we are indeed rather straying from the purpose of this thread so I am hosting myself to say let's not continue this tangent here, please . It might make a fun thread in the Circus.
Comments
Jesus is Lord! Creation's voice proclaims it / JESUS IS LORD
We Have An Anchor / WILL YOUR ANCHOR HOLD
May the Mind of Christ, my Saviour / ST LEONARDS
The Lord's my Shepherd (Stuart Townend version)
We have a Gospel to Proclaim / GERMANY
Amazing Grace
Forth in Thy Name, O Lord I go
* I remember this one from primary school assemblies and moved to wonder what they expected 8 year olds to make of terms like “Consubstantial, Co-eternal.”
Here are vv1,4 and 5.
Into a world of darkness since the fall
new light had dawned, two champions heard the call:
Peter the rock, and Paul once known as Saul!
Alleluia, alleluia.
On each a lifelong mission was conferred,
“Go tell the nations all that you have heard
of God made known through Christ, th’incarnate Word.”
Alleluia, alleluia.
Their work accomplished, called to their reward,
one crucified, one martyred by the sword,
their deaths bore witness to the risen Lord:
Alleluia, alleluia.
Thanks for that @Alan29 - good stuff, and worthy of being more widely sung.
Today we had:
“Now Thank We All Our God”/NUN DANKET ALLE GOTT
“Words Were Spoken, Loaves Were Broken”/BEACH SPRING
“Let Us Break Bread Together”*
“When We Are Living” (Pues si vivimos)/SOMOS DEL SEÑOR
* Sung without accompaniment during Communion. I was serving, and got to hear the maybe 800 voices singing, not too loudly and in harmony. Beautiful!
New every morning
And can it be
( I can’t recall the third one)
Great is thy faithfulness
During communion
The Call, a George Herbert poem, music by Smith.
I hate the way that bits of it have to drop the octave to make it singable. It ruins a splendid tune.
Here to the house of God we come
When I receive the peace of Christ
Beauty for brokenness
Be thou my vision
How great thou art (for which it is really hard to get an accompaniment that works; pitch, tempo, syncopation, something always seems "off")
Holst did not AFAIK write it for use as a hymn tune - I wonder what he thought of the words written later? Possibly they are in accordance with the spirit of the times, but O! how out-of-date, and even offensive, they seem today...
I was amused to see that the Old-Catholic Cathedral in Utrecht had Praise, my soul, the King of Heaven as the entrance hymn, and Fight the good fight as the recessional - both in English, to the proper tunes, FTGF being sung to Duke Street, as approved by Our Lord and His Blessed Mother. I was therefore able to warble along, these being two of my favourites.
The O-Cs are holding a Summer School in Theology, which brings in people from various countries, and the priest welcomed them - in English - at the beginning of the Mass. The Epistle was read in English, too.
No, he wrote it as a theme in “The Planets.” But Holst himself, a few years after he wrote “The Planets,” adapted that theme for “I Vow to Thee My Country.” Ralph Vaughan Williams included it in Songs of Praise in 1926. I’m sure it was in the spirit of the times, but not one of either composer’s better decisions.
It’s actually in my tribe’s hymnal, and I think it can qualify as a spiritual song if not a hymn, especially if certain verses are included. (The version in our hymnal includes “God will see us through today.”)
As you say, not the best decision on the part of either.
Perhaps Holst would have approved of Perry's O God beyond all praising, though.
Either way, his music is sublime, and deserves better words than IVTTMC...
I don't know much about Holst, but I can understand how at the end of WW1 many people, including him, could be moved by the words of IVTTMC. Nationalist sentiment is a powerful thing. But it's not Christian, and certainly not in keeping with the sort of Christianity espoused by Conrad Noel, who was vociferously anti-nationalist. It's hard (and wrong) for us right now not to sympathise with the people of Ukraine and similarly oppressed nations, but the minute that sympathy crosses into flag-waving 'my country right or wrong' territory alarm bells should ring.
The most intolerable bit of the intolerable first verse of IVTT is the phrase, 'the love that asks no question'. Heaven forbid! Love commands us to ask questions. Even of our Christian faith, and certainly of human ideologies and structures.
This.
I would have a hard time of it in places where national flags are around the altar and where patriotic hymns are sung on national holidays.
Unless we are black or from a truly persecuted minority, it does not seem nor feel right to sing this song, coming as it does from the perspective of slaves seeking freedom. It's arguably cultural appreciation and many of us simply don't know or realise how privilege we are in comparison
One of the events of the preceding week had been the attack on a woman teaching gender studies at the University of Waterloo, and I think this, among other things, was on the minister's mind.
I can see the point but is the Minister or anyone in the church, the one being oppressed or attacked? If not, then perhaps another way of expressing support is better.
Yes I can see that. I would think that it has to be very finely considered otherwise a group of wealthy white people singing "we shall overcome" looks very inappropriate and makes the whole thing a laughing stock. It might just provide ammunition for the detractors.
I saw it as a communal, rather than an individual response to oppression; the church acting as part of the community through song.
The song is definitely linked to the Civil Rights Movement, but it is widely understood in the US as a song of protest and solidarity, and it has always belonged to a wider culture than just African Americans.
Going back to what we sang - our offerings this morning were:
Praise the Lord, ye heavens adore him - Austria*
Jesus shall reign - Truro
Have faith in God, my heart - Doncaster**
Meekness and majesty - This is your God***
The Spirit lives to set us free - Walk in the Light
* No - I don't mind singing that either, under the abovementioned JGT principle.
** I really should have picked up a music edition of the hymn-book; we didn't have a choir practice yesterday because the choirmistress is away, and we had The Organist Who Probably Does Practise But Isn't Very Good today, and although we've had the tune Doncaster before, I still don't really know how it's supposed to go ...
*** I've never come across this one before, but was beginning to get how it went by the fourth verse.
Make way
I danced in the morning
Jesus Christ is waiting
Jesus shall reign
Sung Gloria, Sanctus and Benedictus, Agnus Dei, not sure of setting.
I see the King of Glory (Hosanna)
Who Am I That The Highest King
Firm Foundation (He Won't)
Jesus Strong and Kind
There Must Be More Than This (Consuming Fire)
Your Grace Is Enough
Happy Day / Tim Hughes & Ben Cantelon
Shine (from the inside out) / Nick Jackson
How Deep The Father's Love For Us / Stuart Townend
The Power of Your Love / Geoff Bullock
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling / BEECHER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQQO8v-0VBo
We do it as the entrance hymn on Maundy Thursday because it references the foot washing. Gets Mass off to a cracking start, too.
Blest is the man whose bowels move
And melt with pity to the poor
Whose soul, by sympathizing love
Feels what his fellow saints endure
His heart contrives for their relief
More good than his own hands can do
He, in the time of general grief
Shall find the Lord has bowels, too.
I can't offhand think of a tune that will fit...but I'm sure someone else can...
Jesus Shall Reign -didn't work out which tune this was meant to be
May the Mind of Christ, our Saviour -St. Leonards
Love Divine, all Loves Excelling -Blaenwern
“Sing Glory to the Name of Gods (Ps 29)/LASST UNS ERFREUEN
“In Christ We Live” (John Bell)
“In a Deep, Unbounded Darkness”/DIVINUM MYSTERIUM
“I Depend Upon Your Faithfulness (Tu fidelidad)/TU FIDELIDAD
"Ye banks and braes", perhaps. But "Jerusalem" is better ...
We will extol you, ever-blessed Lord (Old 124th)
Thou art the Way, to thee alone (St. James)
Father, we thank thee who hast planted (Rendez à Dieu)
Jesus shall reign where-e'er the sun (Duke Street)
Choral:
Schütz: Der Herr ist groß und sehr löblich, SWV 286
Handel: Come unto him, all ye that labour (from Messiah)
Some years ago a member of our congregation had an operation for bowel cancer, and a stoma fitted. A year later she had a stoma reversal. Her husband, instead of messaging that the operation had proved successful, messaged a very excited and happy "C has done a poo!!"
Amidst the general rejoicing someone suggested having that hymn the following Sunday. I think C herself squashed that suggestion.
"Love divine all loves excelling" / Hyfrydol
Psalm 45:11-18 recited.
"How sweet the name of Jesus sounds" / St. Peter
"I heard the voice of Jesus say" / The Third Tune
"Father we thank thee who hast planted" / Rendez a Dieu
"Lord of all hopefulness, Lord of all joy" / Slane
"Jesus shall reign where'er the sun" / Duke Street
As someone who looks after elderly parents, that resonates with me.
I am convinced that the peevish Mr Woodhouse in Jane Austen's Emma was just constipated the entire time. It would explain a lot.
As for the Lord having bowels, that leads me to all those references to being 'seated on the throne' and of course 'the trump of God' ... but perhaps that's for another thread.
My colleague and I were young, irreverent and rather dismissive of older folk. "You wait", he said, "In a moment they'll sing 'God is still on the throne'." And, right on cue, they did!.
But perhaps we're straying a bit from the purpose of this thread ...
As you might expect, I've just sung that to myself to Jerusalem and am now giggling rather a lot ...
However, we are indeed rather straying from the purpose of this thread so I am hosting myself to say let's not continue this tangent here, please