Pentecost Sunday:
Come down, O Love divine (Down Ampney)
Come Holy Ghost, our souls inspire (Veni Creator)
O Spirit of the Living God (Gonfalon Royal)
Holy Spirit come confirm us (All for Jesus)
Pentecost celebrated in full fig (I even remembered to wear something red!) at St Pete's:
Breathe on me, breath of God - Carlisle I heard the voice of Jesus say - Kingsfold Calm down Come down, O love divine - Down Ampney Holy Spirit, come confirm us - Laus Deo (Redhead) Shine, Jesus Shine - oh dear ...
The trouble with having cr@p like that as the sending-out is it gives you an earworm - and not a good one! Sadly, one of our organists (and I suspect our new vicar as well) thinks it's wonderful.
If I'd been on the coffee rota today I could have legitimately buggered off upstairs to put the kettle on ...
Our churches obviously sing from the same hymn book (or screen in our case) as I always know most of the songs you list.
A screen in our case too, and I had thought the same about our churches from a few of the things you've said.
I've often wondered whether someone reading this thread might one day read a post and think, "Hang on - we had those this morning as well" and discover another Shippie in their real life congregation.
All Age service for Pentecost with Communion.
On the day of Pentecost ( Puer nobis)
O Lord, the clouds are gathering
Spirit of the living God
God’s spirit is in my heart
O God of burning, cleansing flame, send the fire.
During Communion the choir was meant to be singing O breath of life, but as there were only 3 of us, we didn’t. ( Nor did we robe, or process). Instead the disgruntled DoM played variations on Come down O love divine, and grumbled audibly at intervals.
I would love to know what other members of the congregation thought. The service was well planned with “something for everyone”, but attracted nobody who would be unfamiliar with what we normally do.
Pentecost Sunday without Come down, O love divine (to Down Ampney, of course) is Huge and Terrible Outrage...
Sadly (to me, at least—it’s not a standard among American Presbyterians like it is in some other traditions), we didn’t sing it either. What we did sing was “Spirit” (“Spirit, Spirit of Gentleness”), or as I think of it, “Spirit of Endlessness” or “Spirit of Tediousness.” It falls, I’m afraid, in that category of hymns that most everyone else, at least in my ambit, seems to love, but that I really don’t.
But we balanced that out with Shirley Erena Murray’s wonderful “As the Wind Song,” to Swee Hong Lim’s beautiful tune WAIRUA TAPU.
There is a Redeemer
Colours of day dawn into the mind
Breathe on me, breath of God
Lord Jesus Christ, you have come to us
Lord of the church, we pray for our renewing (Londonderry Air)
Not enough scope for harmony here. The only one that was OK for that was Breathe on me ... but that was only when I realised the tenor part was so much more interesting than the alto
May 28th: Pentecost
O breathe of life, come sweeping through us, / Spiritus Vitae
God sends us his Spirit, / Natomah
There’s a Spirit in the air, / Lauds
Great God your Spirit, like the wind, / Jerusalem
Choral
Introit: Pinsesalme (Edvard Grieg) and
O Qué Bueno (Trad. Puerto Rican hymn)
Anthem: Come Holy Ghost (Mark Liversidge)
There is a Redeemer
Colours of day dawn into the mind
Breathe on me, breath of God
Lord Jesus Christ, you have come to us
Lord of the church, we pray for our renewing (Londonderry Air)
1985 called, they'd like their "modern" hymns back.
"Hail thee festival day"/Salve festa dies
Part of Psalm 104 with a refrain based on Veni Creator Spiritus
"Come, thou Holy Spirit bright"/Veni Sancte Spiritus
"Come, Holy Ghost our souls inspire"/Veni Creator Spiritus
"Like the murmur of the dove's song"/Bridegroom
"Hail this joyful day's return"/Sonne der Gerechtigheit
There is a Redeemer
Colours of day dawn into the mind
Breathe on me, breath of God
Lord Jesus Christ, you have come to us
Lord of the church, we pray for our renewing (Londonderry Air)
1985 called, they'd like their "modern" hymns back.
Ha ha! Yes that's about as modern as we usually get, with hymns like this from a little known hymnbook we use occasionally called 'Glory to God'
There is a Redeemer
Colours of day dawn into the mind
Breathe on me, breath of God
Lord Jesus Christ, you have come to us
Lord of the church, we pray for our renewing (Londonderry Air)
1985 called, they'd like their "modern" hymns back.
Ha ha! Yes that's about as modern as we usually get, with hymns like this from a little known hymnbook we use occasionally called 'Glory to God'
They reminded me of primary school and the A&M supplements A hundred hymns for today and More hymns for today.
Alas, I can't find an index to those books online - and I can't be bothered going down to my own church to check in ours! "There is a Redeemer" is too new for them, while "Spirit of God" comes from the Iona stable. "Lord Jesus Christ" was in Youth Praise 1.
Come down, O love divine (Down Ampney) All heaven declares (Tricia & Noel Richards) Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire (Veni, Creator Spiritus) Be still, for the presence of the Lord (D J Evans)
...and they finished up, almost inevitably, with that wretched and over-exposed Shiny Song
Had I been there (which I wasn't), I'd have tottered out long before the first excruciating note of SJS...
I haven't sung it for years. Is it so disliked because:
- folk just don't like its words and/or music?
- it's become intrinsically linked with a style of worship or theology they dislike?
- - it's been so often been played and sung badly (perhaps by a dreary organist, without any "oomph")?
- it's simply been "done to death"?
Please use both sides of the paper for your answer.
I haven't sung it for years. Is it so disliked because:
- folk just don't like its words and/or music?
- it's become intrinsically linked with a style of worship or theology they dislike?
- - it's been so often been played and sung badly (perhaps by a dreary organist, without any "oomph")?
- it's simply been "done to death"?
Please use both sides of the paper for your answer.
No need to use both sides. The answer is *all of those*...
Also, it was written for the first ‘March for Jesus’. To be sung with energy by crowds of people walking outdoors, in the style of a football chant. It was never meant to be played on the organ and sung by a choir.
I remember doing football style chants at the March -
“Who - has - power to save?
(clap clap clap clap)
Je-sus!”
Fortunately those have been left to fade into memory and perhaps SJS should also. I have sung it maybe 3 times this century. It’s of its time.
Also, it was written for the first ‘March for Jesus’. To be sung with energy by crowds of people walking outdoors, in the style of a football chant. It was never meant to be played on the organ and sung by a choir.
I remember doing football style chants at the March -
“Who - has - power to save?
(clap clap clap clap)
Je-sus!”
Fortunately those have been left to fade into memory and perhaps SJS should also. I have sung it maybe 3 times this century. It’s of its time.
Yes, and its time is (or should be) over, as you suggest.
Also, it was written for the first ‘March for Jesus’. To be sung with energy by crowds of people walking outdoors, in the style of a football chant. It was never meant to be played on the organ and sung by a choir.
"Meant to be" carries a lot less weight for me than "doesn't work if", and I find SJS can work fine with organ and choir if given sufficient energy (particularly an organist who can get the intro moving fast enough).
I quite like it, but I have a fairly high pain threshold when it comes to musical drek.
I think our organist used the grand piano (IYSWIM), in which case it would have been played, if not sung, with panache...though it's still musical drek.
Its much better than many of the Victorian hymns I grew up with, hymns about Jesus' body parts and the many fictional attributes of his mother as we beg her to whisper in his ear. All set to tunes that were the close relatives of Nellie Dean.
Now they were simpering dross in a category all of their own.
At least SJS has a bit of vim and vigour and doesn't bang on about how we are all sinners in this vale of tears!
Some of the RC hymns @Alan29 mentions are indeed dross, and are (alas) to be found in Certain Places in the C of E. I recall our late churchwarden trying to get us to include a Marian hymn (to the tune Aurelia) in a Mothering Sunday Family Mass. I can't remember the words, but I did compose a sort of parody:
We love our Mother Mary,
Our Co-Redemptrix dear:
Although we cannot see her,
We know that she is near.
We don't care much for Father,
For Son, or Holy Ghost:
But blessed Mother Mary
'Tis she we love the most...
The parody BTW was fairly close to the original... - the churchwarden in question was very Marian in his personal theology, and tried to take Our Place rather too far down that road for comfort.
Some of the RC hymns @Alan29 mentions are indeed dross, and are (alas) to be found in Certain Places in the C of E. I recall our late churchwarden trying to get us to include a Marian hymn (to the tune Aurelia) in a Mothering Sunday Family Mass. I can't remember the words, but I did compose a sort of parody:
We love our Mother Mary,
Our Co-Redemptrix dear:
Although we cannot see her,
We know that she is near.
We don't care much for Father,
For Son, or Holy Ghost:
But blessed Mother Mary
'Tis she we love the most...
Interesting research on worship songs reported by Premier Christian News.
Quote from the article: “If you have ever felt like most worship music sounds the same, it may be because the worship music you are most likely to hear in many churches is written by just a handful of songwriters from a handful of churches.”
Trinity Sunday (our patronal festival)
I bind unto myself today (St Patrick's Breastplate)
Father most holy (Iste Confessor)
Holy Holy Holy (Nicaea)
May the grace of Christ our Saviour (Gotte Des Himmels)
Holy, holy, holy - Nicaea* Three in one, and one in three - Capetown We give immortal praise - Croft's 136th Love of the Father - Ellers (gosh that's an old wailer) Praise, my soul, the King of heaven - Praise, my soul
* I wonder if anyone in Christendom didn't have that this morning?
At our first Sunday of the month "Hymns of Praise" service where members of the congregation are able to request hymns in advance:
Let There Be Light (Thou, whose almighty word) / ITALIAN HYMN
Through All the Changing Scenes of Life / WILTSHIRE
*And Can it Be, That I Should Gain? / SAGINA
Be Still, For the Spirit of the Lord / BE STILL
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling / HYFRYDOL
*This was requested by Mrs Darda. The hymn played a prominent role during her Methodist upbringing in Yorkshire and was sung at the funerals of both her parents.
Mrs Darda conceded that our congregation did it reasonable justice (for Anglicans)
@Piglet - No Holy, Holy, Holy for us this morning, but maybe at one of our other two services?
We sang the Cantique de Jean Racine. An offering to God from my heart, and the most perfect union of music and words I have ever sung, with the possible exceptions of the St John Passion and the Deutsche Requiem.
We also sang Hadyn's little organ mass, which is an abomination before the Lord, at least as far as the Gloria is concerned. It is kind of made up for by the Benedictus and the Agnus Dei, but I do feel that the Almighty will Have Words, if they have not been had already.
I adore that Faure. Its sublime. I can forgive Haydn a lot since I discovered that he got told off for his Masses and replied "I can't help it. The thought of God always makes me cheerful." We used to sing on of his at the cathedral where different parts of the Gloria were sung simultaneously so it was all over in the twinkling of an eye.
We sang drivel at our place today. The man who picks the music is stuck in the 1960s and can't be doing with organs etc. So none of the grand Trinitarian theological hymns. Bleurgh!
God knows what we will get for Corpus Xti next week. Probably "Let us break bread together on our knees."
Comments
There will be clapping on the off beats too.
And old ladies shaking their arthritic hips.
Come down, O Love divine (Down Ampney)
Come Holy Ghost, our souls inspire (Veni Creator)
O Spirit of the Living God (Gonfalon Royal)
Holy Spirit come confirm us (All for Jesus)
Come Holy Ghost ( Tallis’s Ordinal)
Introit: Spiritus Domini
Setting: Victoria O quam gloriosum
Sequence: Veni Creator ( arr Kirkpatrick)
Motet: O Lord let Thy Holy Sprit ( Tallis)
Come down O Love Divine ( good old Down Ampney)
Cathedral was packed as it was also the kick-off for the Synod for the Diocese of Parramatta. Here’s hoping for them all.
Breathe on me, breath of God - Carlisle
I heard the voice of Jesus say - Kingsfold
Calm down Come down, O love divine - Down Ampney
Holy Spirit, come confirm us - Laus Deo (Redhead)
Shine, Jesus Shine - oh dear ...
The trouble with having cr@p like that as the sending-out is it gives you an earworm - and not a good one! Sadly, one of our organists (and I suspect our new vicar as well) thinks it's wonderful.
If I'd been on the coffee rota today I could have legitimately buggered off upstairs to put the kettle on ...
Breathe on me Breath of God (CARLISLE)
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling (BLAENWERN)
A screen in our case too, and I had thought the same about our churches from a few of the things you've said.
I've often wondered whether someone reading this thread might one day read a post and think, "Hang on - we had those this morning as well" and discover another Shippie in their real life congregation.
This morning we had:
Who You Say I Am
Great Is Your Faithfulness Not The One That Springs To Mind
Waymaker
Overshadowing
Father of Creation (Let Your Glory Fall In This Place)
Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire (Veni Creator Spiritus)
Come, thou Holy Spirit bright (Veni Sancte Spiritus)
Our Lord, his passion ended, hath gloriously ascended (Naphill)
Spirit of mercy, truth, and love (Cornish)
Come down, O Love divine (Down Ampney)
Choral:
Émile Paladilhe: Messe Solennelle de la Pentecôte (1898)
Mozart: Veni sancte Spiritus, K. 47
Tallis: If ye love me
On the day of Pentecost ( Puer nobis)
O Lord, the clouds are gathering
Spirit of the living God
God’s spirit is in my heart
O God of burning, cleansing flame, send the fire.
During Communion the choir was meant to be singing O breath of life, but as there were only 3 of us, we didn’t. ( Nor did we robe, or process). Instead the disgruntled DoM played variations on Come down O love divine, and grumbled audibly at intervals.
I would love to know what other members of the congregation thought. The service was well planned with “something for everyone”, but attracted nobody who would be unfamiliar with what we normally do.
But we balanced that out with Shirley Erena Murray’s wonderful “As the Wind Song,” to Swee Hong Lim’s beautiful tune WAIRUA TAPU.
There is a Redeemer
Colours of day dawn into the mind
Breathe on me, breath of God
Lord Jesus Christ, you have come to us
Lord of the church, we pray for our renewing (Londonderry Air)
Not enough scope for harmony here. The only one that was OK for that was Breathe on me ... but that was only when I realised the tenor part was so much more interesting than the alto
O breathe of life, come sweeping through us, / Spiritus Vitae
God sends us his Spirit, / Natomah
There’s a Spirit in the air, / Lauds
Great God your Spirit, like the wind, / Jerusalem
Choral
Introit: Pinsesalme (Edvard Grieg) and
O Qué Bueno (Trad. Puerto Rican hymn)
Anthem: Come Holy Ghost (Mark Liversidge)
Postlude was the ‘Gigue’ Fugue, BWV 577
1985 called, they'd like their "modern" hymns back.
So light up the fire, let the flames burn,
Open the doors ....... etc.
And a recording of Smoke Gets In Your Eyes as people leave. Or maybe the divine Gracie Fields singing Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye.
Spirit of God Unseen as the wind (Skye Boat Song)
Spirit of the living God
Gulp - Shine Jesus Shine- Gulp
This was actually played at a cousin's cremation last year as the curtains closed
"Hail thee festival day"/Salve festa dies
Part of Psalm 104 with a refrain based on Veni Creator Spiritus
"Come, thou Holy Spirit bright"/Veni Sancte Spiritus
"Come, Holy Ghost our souls inspire"/Veni Creator Spiritus
"Like the murmur of the dove's song"/Bridegroom
"Hail this joyful day's return"/Sonne der Gerechtigheit
What is it with that bl**dy Shiny Song? Drivel.
The best version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA1jb6cbGzk
Memo: Must have SJS next Sunday.
Ha ha! Yes that's about as modern as we usually get, with hymns like this from a little known hymnbook we use occasionally called 'Glory to God'
They reminded me of primary school and the A&M supplements A hundred hymns for today and More hymns for today.
Come down, O love divine (Down Ampney)
All heaven declares (Tricia & Noel Richards)
Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire (Veni, Creator Spiritus)
Be still, for the presence of the Lord (D J Evans)
...and they finished up, almost inevitably, with that wretched and over-exposed Shiny Song
Had I been there (which I wasn't), I'd have tottered out long before the first excruciating note of SJS...
- folk just don't like its words and/or music?
- it's become intrinsically linked with a style of worship or theology they dislike?
- - it's been so often been played and sung badly (perhaps by a dreary organist, without any "oomph")?
- it's simply been "done to death"?
Please use both sides of the paper for your answer.
No need to use both sides. The answer is *all of those*...
I remember doing football style chants at the March -
“Who - has - power to save?
(clap clap clap clap)
Je-sus!”
Fortunately those have been left to fade into memory and perhaps SJS should also. I have sung it maybe 3 times this century. It’s of its time.
Yes, and its time is (or should be) over, as you suggest.
"Meant to be" carries a lot less weight for me than "doesn't work if", and I find SJS can work fine with organ and choir if given sufficient energy (particularly an organist who can get the intro moving fast enough).
I quite like it, but I have a fairly high pain threshold when it comes to musical drek.
Now they were simpering dross in a category all of their own.
At least SJS has a bit of vim and vigour and doesn't bang on about how we are all sinners in this vale of tears!
And it's much better than lots of cliched and banal newer worship songs!
I agree,
How do you lift up a name, anyway? Put it on a post-it note and wave it around?
Some of the RC hymns @Alan29 mentions are indeed dross, and are (alas) to be found in Certain Places in the C of E. I recall our late churchwarden trying to get us to include a Marian hymn (to the tune Aurelia) in a Mothering Sunday Family Mass. I can't remember the words, but I did compose a sort of parody:
We love our Mother Mary,
Our Co-Redemptrix dear:
Although we cannot see her,
We know that she is near.
We don't care much for Father,
For Son, or Holy Ghost:
But blessed Mother Mary
'Tis she we love the most...
I'll get me coat.
The parody BTW was fairly close to the original...
That is wonderful!
It goes with much more of a cheerful swing, if sung to Ellacombe...
Quote from the article: “If you have ever felt like most worship music sounds the same, it may be because the worship music you are most likely to hear in many churches is written by just a handful of songwriters from a handful of churches.”
I bind unto myself today (St Patrick's Breastplate)
Father most holy (Iste Confessor)
Holy Holy Holy (Nicaea)
May the grace of Christ our Saviour (Gotte Des Himmels)
Holy, holy, holy - Nicaea*
Three in one, and one in three - Capetown
We give immortal praise - Croft's 136th
Love of the Father - Ellers (gosh that's an old wailer)
Praise, my soul, the King of heaven - Praise, my soul
* I wonder if anyone in Christendom didn't have that this morning?
Let There Be Light (Thou, whose almighty word) / ITALIAN HYMN
Through All the Changing Scenes of Life / WILTSHIRE
*And Can it Be, That I Should Gain? / SAGINA
Be Still, For the Spirit of the Lord / BE STILL
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling / HYFRYDOL
*This was requested by Mrs Darda. The hymn played a prominent role during her Methodist upbringing in Yorkshire and was sung at the funerals of both her parents.
Mrs Darda conceded that our congregation did it reasonable justice (for Anglicans)
@Piglet - No Holy, Holy, Holy for us this morning, but maybe at one of our other two services?
We also sang Hadyn's little organ mass, which is an abomination before the Lord, at least as far as the Gloria is concerned. It is kind of made up for by the Benedictus and the Agnus Dei, but I do feel that the Almighty will Have Words, if they have not been had already.
We sang drivel at our place today. The man who picks the music is stuck in the 1960s and can't be doing with organs etc. So none of the grand Trinitarian theological hymns. Bleurgh!
God knows what we will get for Corpus Xti next week. Probably "Let us break bread together on our knees."