Hymn Blog - May 17, 2009

In today's service we are commissioning a group of young adults, who are leaving tomorrow (May 18) for an exposure trip to Israel/Palestine with leaders Vicki Obedkoff and Rick Garland.

MV 148 - Hope of Abraham and Sarah.  This hymn by Ruth Duck (see last week's hymn blog) is a prayer for peace, understanding and unity for the three Abrahamic traditions of Islam, Judaism and Christianity.  Composer Judith Snowdon studied composition at Canadian Mennonite University and is organist/choir director at a United Church in New Brunswick.

VU 701 - What Does the Lord Require of You.  This familiar canon, based on Micah 6:6-8, is by California singer/songwriter Jim Strathdee.

VU 685 - We Turn to You.  Prolific hymn writer Fred Kaan wrote many of his hymns for his Congregational (now United Reformed) congregation in Plymouth, England.  Dutch by birth, Kaan moved to England to study theology in 1952.  He has served as parish minister as well as in leadership roles in the United Reformed Church and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.  Eminent hymnologist Carleton Young has written "Fred's hymns invariably have social justice at their centre. They are cries, laments and prophecies born in the Church's struggle to be faithful to the gospel."  The tune, WELWYN was first published in an English Roman Catholic tune book in 1900.

VU 679 - Let There Be Light.  We use the second stanza of this beautiful prayer hymn as our prayer response.  Canadian poet Frances Wheeler Davis wrote the text and Canadian composer Robert Fleming wrote the lovely tune CONCORD.

VU 697 - O For a World.  This text by Miriam Therese Winter (see last week's hymn blog) is an escatological vision of Christ's kindom of justice and peace.  Originally written for a Presbyterian women's conference, it was later recrafted and recorded by the Medical Mission Sisters.  The tune, AZMON, is German in origin, and was collected by American Lowell Mason in 1837.  It is often associated with Charles Wesley's "O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing."

MV 120 - My Soul Cries Out.  Author Rory Cooney is director of liturgy and music at St. Anne Catholic Community in Barrington, Illinois.  He arranged the Irish traditional tune "Star of the County Down" to provide a stunning setting for the text.