We have been doing it a few years now.
I wish this wss in our hymn books
An eco-friendly version of All Things Bright and Beautiful from another forum....
📷All things bright and beautiful,
all creatures great and small,
all things wise and wonderful,
the Lord God made them all.
The purple-headed mountain,
the rivers running by,
are filled with deadly toxins
cascading from the sky.
All things bright and beautiful,
all creatures great and small,
all things wise and wonderful:
we humans trashed them all.
Each little flower that opens,
each little bird that sings
is tainted with the plastic
we’ve thrown into our bins.
All things bright and beautiful,
all creatures great and small…
God who made the universe
looks out on us appalled.
The typhoons in the winter,
the burning summer sun…
the changes to the climate
have only just begun.
All things bright and beautiful,
all creatures great and small,
all things wise and wonderful:
we humans trashed them all.
The rich man in his castle,
the poor man at his gate,
all humans high and lowly
will suffer the same fate.
All things bright and beautiful,
all creatures great and small…
God who made the universe
looks out on us appalled.
God gave us eyes to see them,
and lips that we might tell:
the choices we are making
to turn the world to hell.
All things bright and beautiful,
all creatures great and small,
all things wise and wonderful:
we humans trashed them all.
Please see Hostly Hint below.
Nenya - Ecclesiantics Host
Our church appears to be taking the Season of Creation quite seriously with a very ecologically aware and focused service yesterday.
Seems a good thing to me. I don't see the point of the church if it's not going to point out where humans have fecked things up. I thought that was the basic premise of Christianity.
Having a Season of Creation at your harvest time seems odd to us.
Why?
Creation is springtime - new growth, gambolling lambs and so forth. Not the shortening days of autumn. The same point as Nick Tamen sets out.
Our church appears to be taking the Season of Creation quite seriously with a very ecologically aware and focused service yesterday.
Seems a good thing to me. I don't see the point of the church if it's not going to point out where humans have fecked things up. I thought that was the basic premise of Christianity.
Having a Season of Creation at your harvest time seems odd to us.
Why?
Creation is springtime - new growth, gambolling lambs and so forth. Not the shortening days of autumn. The same point as Nick Tamen sets out.
Creation is all that is. The fall of leaves to the ground as part of the ecological cycle is creation. Night is part of creation, dark as much as light. I think seeing it as a Spring thing is too limiting an understanding of what creation is. Creation is the whole physical universe.
Glaciers are weakened in the Summer and recreated in the Winter. Their retreat is a serious ecological concern. Apparent destruction - falling trees, the fields going silent - is an essential part of creation's pattern. The serious anti-creative destruction is when we destroy that pattern.
I understand what you're saying, but the traditional use of Creation in temperate zones is for spring". Nothing is a beautiful as spring, when weeds in wheels etc
I understand what you're saying, but the traditional use of Creation in temperate zones is for spring". Nothing is a beautiful as spring, when weeds in wheels etc
I think that's exactly the sort of conception we need to move away from.
Our church appears to be taking the Season of Creation quite seriously with a very ecologically aware and focused service yesterday.
Seems a good thing to me. I don't see the point of the church if it's not going to point out where humans have fecked things up. I thought that was the basic premise of Christianity.
Having a Season of Creation at your harvest time seems odd to us.
Why?
Creation is springtime - new growth, gambolling lambs and so forth. Not the shortening days of autumn. The same point as Nick Tamen sets out.
To be clear, I wasn’t making a point about when care of creation should be liturgically marked. I was just noting when, in my experience, care of creation is liturgically marked by churches where I am.
I can see value in marking care of creation in a time of year when there’s not much else going on (liturgically) to compete with it. It’s just doesn’t seem to be what’s happening here. Here, the liturgical observances are, as it were, piggy-backing on observances of Earth Day in the wider society. In other words, the liturgical marking happens at a time of year when there’s already heightened emphasis in society generally.
Meanwhile, that’s excellent, @Alan29! (And good job trying to get the thread back to hymns.)
Why is that please? It's a conception that's been around for a long time.
Because thinking creation is about new individual lives risks missing the point that creation exists as a coherent whole which all needs to function for life to go on in its current form. We need a holistic view to achieve anything useful. It's about a focus on the ecosystem rather than individual organisms or species.
Why is that please? It's a conception that's been around for a long time.
Don't think so, but I could be wrong which all needs to function for life to go on in its current form. We need a holistic view to achieve anything useful. It's about a focus on the ecosystem rather than individual organisms or species.
For us, this time of creation comes before Christmastide.
Even allowing for the difference in the northern hemisphere, how does your need for a wholistic view interfere with celebration a season of creation - and what is the ecosystem but the entirety of the individual organisms and species?
Why is that please? It's a conception that's been around for a long time.
Don't think so, but I could be wrong which all needs to function for life to go on in its current form. We need a holistic view to achieve anything useful. It's about a focus on the ecosystem rather than individual organisms or species.
For us, this time of creation comes before Christmastide.
Even allowing for the difference in the northern hemisphere, how does your need for a wholistic view interfere with celebration a season of creation - and what is the ecosystem but the entirety of the individual organisms and species?
The ecosystem consists of the relationships between organisms as much as it does the organisms themselves. You might as well say a painting is a load of pigments or a symphony a bunch of air vibration.
[Hostly Hint]
The very interesting ecclesiastical calendar and creation tangent should be continued on another thread, please.
@Alan29 , the Ship's guideline is that one verse of a hymn is fair use and means hosts don't need to check copyright status; this can apply even for old hymns if the version quoted is in any way modified, so I've hidden most of the verses you quoted, leaving two showing to make it clear the version isn't the usual one. We would ask for a link for the rest; in this case the version appeared in the Communion at Greenbelt this year - here.
Following the death of Queen Elizabeth there were some changes to the theme and order of service, including a couple of hymns*
*Praise, my soul, the King of heaven - Henry Lyte / LAUDA ANIMA
Our God is a great big God - Jo & Nigel Hemming
(Children left for their own groups at this point)
Jesus, I’ve forgotten the words that you have spoken (Lord have mercy) - Steve Merkel
To be in your presence - Noel Richards
*The Lord's my shepherd (And I will trust in Him alone) - Stuart Townend
Lord, for the years - Timothy Dudley-Smith / LORD OF THE YEARS
*Reputed to be two of Her Majesty's favourite hymns, although I suspect she was more familiar with CRIMOND than Stuart Townend's reworking
The gospel was the Prodigal Son, but obviously current events coloured some of our Mass this morning. So the first two were for the Prodigal and the others for Elizabeth RIP.
Apart from the usual Mass parts
In the land there is a hunger
Amazing grace
Eagle's wings
God save our gracious Quing.
People sang lustily for the whole thing and numbers were back to pre-Covid norms of 130+.
The bishop had planned a Pastoral letter on Bernadette of Lourdes who's body parts are being paraded around the country for those who find such things meaningful. Happily he replaced it with a (for once) half tolerable one on the Queen.
With our interim moderator having prepared the service before departing on holiday the hymns were surprisingly apt:
All people that on earth do dwell
Come Holy Ghost our hearts inspire
Amazing Grace
My song is love unknown
The King of love my shepherd is
We had an introductory period of Scripture, reflection and prayer but then continued as planned with the Lost Sheep. Hymns were:
"I will sing the wondrous story" (Hyfrdol).
"The Lord's my shepherd" (Townend version).
"Loving shepherd of thy sheep" (Buckland).
"Come, let us sing of a wonderful love" (Wonderful love).
"Lord of the years".
No choir required today, as it was the very informal family service. I had planned to attend, to see how it is going, but it did not fit my mood today, so I went to a church in a nearby town with a good choir. It was a commemoration service for HMQ.
Organ prelude: Rhosymedre
Hymns were
Lord for the years
All my hope on God is founded
O God our help in ages past.
National Anthem.
The choir sang Parry’s My soul, there is a country.
Postlude: Elegy ( Thalben-Ball )
Our hymns were changed and a prayer of thanksgiving for the Queen's life and for her soul, and a prayer for the King were added.
King of glory, King of peace - Gwalchmai Lord, we thank you - Austria* Father, Lord of all creation - Abbot's Leigh* Dear Lord and Father of mankind - Repton God save the King
* Interesting to have had both Austria and Abbot's Leigh, which was written during the war to avoid having to sing Austria ...
I don't think we had any quings, but then the words were printed on the order of service!
Our hymns were supposedly some of the Queen's favourites
All People that on Earth do Dwell
Praise my Soul the King of Heaven (even though we sang this last week!)
The Lord's my Shepherd (Crimond)
All my Hope on God is Founded
God Save the King
(The latter was a bit controversial - we are a URC/Baptist Ecumenical partnership, and while the URC church would expect to sing the National Anthem at a time like this, among the Baptists it was a little unusual.)
We had already got to the going to press stage by Thursday evening, so only one change, apart from the prayers.
There's a wideness in God's mercy
Amazing grace
Praise my soul the King of heaven
Lord Jesus Christ, You have come to us
The national anthem
Words were supplied separately on paper for the last item, but having had to learn both standard verses as a Brownie, I always tend to sing that from memory, and now update the pronouns in my head.
Our service had already been printed for use, so the hymns stood as printed, but there were prayers pertinent to the occasion.
The hymns turned out to be most suitable after all.
O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness (Was Lebet)
King of glory, King of peace (Gwalchmai)
Father of Heaven, whose love profound (Song 5)
The King of love my Shepherd is (Dominus Regit me)
We had the changes to readings, etc as recommended by TPTB so had to re-jig virtually all the music apart from the first hymn at our Parish Eucharist.
Setting Missa de Angelis plainsong Motets
Hear my prayer, O Lord Purcell
Ave verum corpus Byrd Psalm 121 Walford Davies Hymns
How sweet the name of Jesus St Peter
Ye servants of God your master proclaim Paderborn
Lord, it belongs not to my care St Botolph
Guide me, O thou great Redeemer Cwm Rhondda Voluntary
Fantasia & Fugue in C minor BWV 562 JS Bach
Plus 2 verses of the National Anthem between blessing and final hymn.
We went to Liverpool Met for a solemn Requiem for the Queen. They sang Faure's Requiem. And we all sang Abide with me after communion. Excellent soloists.
The mayors, chief constable, Lord Lieutenant etc were there. Lord Lieutenant read the Epistle and the Anglican Bishop of Warrington led the bidding prayers.
Communion was interesting. Many clergy communicated the very large congregation, some of whom had to be chased down the aisles by servers and told they had to eat the thing that had been put into their hands. Sidesmen invited people to approach the altar a row at a time and there was no indication either spoken or written about what people were meant to be doing. Meanwhile the Archbishop went to the ecumenical clergy and blessed them individually, spending several seconds laying hands on their heads. I turned to Mrs Alan and commented "Blimey, he"s ordaining them!"
We had Lauds and the Divine Liturgy on Sunday (we aren't able to manage it every week because we're still tiny and don't have the resources. So it's a treat.)
We transferred the Exaltation of the Cross, so we sang the rather beautiful antiphons for the psalms for the feast but managed to get Vexilla Regis Prodeunt (The Royal Banners Forward Go) as the hymn at the Liturgy. I even managed to throw in what little I could remember of Maxim Kovalevsky's harmonies.
It is among my favourite hymns, and the marriage of words and tune is sublime.
"O worship the King" (Hanover).
"King of kings, majesty" (Jarrod Cooper).
"The servant king" (Kendrick).
"The Lord is King! I own his power" (Niagara).
"Jesus shall reign where'er the sun" (Truro).
Just back from watching the morning service (with baptism today) at Martinikerk, Franeker, in the north of The Netherlands (Friesland).
I've been to Franeker, a charming little town (population about 13000) with an enormous mediaeval church now adapted (not too drastically) for Reformed worship.
The words and music of the hymns (and the Bible readings) are projected onto the screen on YouTube, so they're easy to follow. We had (amongst a couple of Dutch hymns unknown to me):
Morning has broken to Bunessan;
A version of the Sanctus sung immediately after the baptism, to Schubert's Deutschemesse; Thank you for every new good morning to the tune familiar in England (not sure of the name); Love divine, all loves excelling to the tune by Stainer.
All sung in Dutch, except for Thank you which was in Friesian dialect!
Yesterday afternoon I sang Evensong with the RSCM Scottish Voices in St. John's Episcopal Church, Greenock - the first time I've sung full, proper Choral Evensong since I came back to Scotland:
Introit: Day by day - Martin How (in memoriam)
Preces & Responses: Tomkins
Psalm 89: 1-19 - E J Hopkins
Mag & Nunc: Noble in B minor
Anthem: My soul, there is a country* - Parry
Hymns: Abide with me - Eventide The day thou gavest, Lord, is ended - St. Clement
* The anthem was to have been O thou the central orb, but was changed in the light of Circumstances.
I'm delighted to report that the Responses didn't feature any quings, at least not during the service. I'm not entirely convinced that our conductor (who was cantoring and has a wry sense of humour) didn't deliberately forget to change his copy before the rehearsal for comic effect.
This morning's offerings at St. P's were a little more prosaic:
All things bright and beautiful - All Things Bright & Beautiful In Christ there is no east or west - Kilmarnock O worship the King - Hanover O Lord of every shining constellation - O Perfect Love Ye servants of God - Franconia
and a rather odd verse of a prayer of thanks for the Queen, set to Repton.
Hmm. The Dutch version I heard today was sung without any trace of dreariness IMHO, but perhaps a bit quicker than it's sung in this country.
The church has no choir, but the congregation, usually well over 100 strong, but more this morning on account of the doopdienst - baptism - sings well.
J Love divine, all loves excelling to the tune by Stainer.
Is Outrage!
O - should have been Blaenwern ?
ISWYM, but they may sing another hymn to Blaenwern - I watch the service most weeks, so will listen out for it...
@Piglet - The day thou gavest was My Old Mum's favourite hymn, and I can't sing it these days without Eye Leakage, as it reminds me so much of her.
Our PP only knows the dreary Stainer,
Then he can learn.
We had:
Ye servants of God
Take my life Lord let it be (whoever "modernised" this lacked the poetic talents of the original author; when you have to rewrite the whole thing because half the lines end in "thee" it's time to accept that it's best left alone)
Lord you sometimes speak in wonders (STUTTGART)
We lay our broken world
O Jesus I have promised (WOLVERCOTE, because THORNBURY sounds silly with these words)
@Piglet - The day thou gavest was My Old Mum's favourite hymn, and I can't sing it these days without Eye Leakage, as it reminds me so much of her.
I'm OK with that one, but Abide with me tends to cause outbreaks of vocal wobblage; I don’t really know why, because I don't particularly like it - it's one of those hymns I can take or leave, but would as soon leave.
This morning we had
All people that on earth do dwell
Lord of the years
Great is thy faithfulness
Guide me O thou great Redeemer
Motet: God be in my head ( Rutter. )
This evening: ( not evensong but a special liturgy)
We stand to mourn a Sovereign ( Thaxted )
The Lord’s my shepherd ( Crimond)
All my hope on God is Founded
Motet: Thou knowest Lord ( Purcell)
Abide with me
National Anthem
Nunc Dimittis ( Hylton Stewart )
@Piglet - The day thou gavest was My Old Mum's favourite hymn, and I can't sing it these days without Eye Leakage, as it reminds me so much of her.
I'm OK with that one, but Abide with me tends to cause outbreaks of vocal wobblage; I don’t really know why, because I don't particularly like it - it's one of those hymns I can take or leave, but would as soon leave.
Odd, isn't it, especially if Abide with me doesn't have any particular sentimental meaning for you...
This morning we had
All people that on earth do dwell
Lord of the years
Great is thy faithfulness
Guide me O thou great Redeemer
Motet: God be in my head ( Rutter. )
This evening: ( not evensong but a special liturgy)
We stand to mourn a Sovereign ( Thaxted )
The Lord’s my shepherd ( Crimond)
All my hope on God is Founded
Motet: Thou knowest Lord ( Purcell)
Abide with me
National Anthem
Nunc Dimittis ( Hylton Stewart )
Is your evening liturgy based on the C of E's provision for a Memorial Service? I'm not sure what FatherInCharge has planned - there may not even be any hymns (apart from God Save The King) if our organist can't attend.
Was 'Lord for the years' decreed by higher authority in the C of E? We had it too: it's one of my most unfavourite hymns , especially 'spirits oppressed by pleasure'. I see what he was getting at but it comes across as killjoy puritanism.
Comments
I wish this wss in our hymn books
An eco-friendly version of All Things Bright and Beautiful from another forum....
📷All things bright and beautiful,
all creatures great and small,
all things wise and wonderful,
the Lord God made them all.
The purple-headed mountain,
the rivers running by,
are filled with deadly toxins
cascading from the sky.
all creatures great and small,
all things wise and wonderful:
we humans trashed them all.
Each little flower that opens,
each little bird that sings
is tainted with the plastic
we’ve thrown into our bins.
All things bright and beautiful,
all creatures great and small…
God who made the universe
looks out on us appalled.
The typhoons in the winter,
the burning summer sun…
the changes to the climate
have only just begun.
All things bright and beautiful,
all creatures great and small,
all things wise and wonderful:
we humans trashed them all.
The rich man in his castle,
the poor man at his gate,
all humans high and lowly
will suffer the same fate.
All things bright and beautiful,
all creatures great and small…
God who made the universe
looks out on us appalled.
God gave us eyes to see them,
and lips that we might tell:
the choices we are making
to turn the world to hell.
All things bright and beautiful,
all creatures great and small,
all things wise and wonderful:
we humans trashed them all.
Please see Hostly Hint below.
Nenya - Ecclesiantics Host
Creation is springtime - new growth, gambolling lambs and so forth. Not the shortening days of autumn. The same point as Nick Tamen sets out.
Creation is all that is. The fall of leaves to the ground as part of the ecological cycle is creation. Night is part of creation, dark as much as light. I think seeing it as a Spring thing is too limiting an understanding of what creation is. Creation is the whole physical universe.
Glaciers are weakened in the Summer and recreated in the Winter. Their retreat is a serious ecological concern. Apparent destruction - falling trees, the fields going silent - is an essential part of creation's pattern. The serious anti-creative destruction is when we destroy that pattern.
I think that's exactly the sort of conception we need to move away from.
I can see value in marking care of creation in a time of year when there’s not much else going on (liturgically) to compete with it. It’s just doesn’t seem to be what’s happening here. Here, the liturgical observances are, as it were, piggy-backing on observances of Earth Day in the wider society. In other words, the liturgical marking happens at a time of year when there’s already heightened emphasis in society generally.
Meanwhile, that’s excellent, @Alan29! (And good job trying to get the thread back to hymns.)
Because thinking creation is about new individual lives risks missing the point that creation exists as a coherent whole which all needs to function for life to go on in its current form. We need a holistic view to achieve anything useful. It's about a focus on the ecosystem rather than individual organisms or species.
For us, this time of creation comes before Christmastide.
Even allowing for the difference in the northern hemisphere, how does your need for a wholistic view interfere with celebration a season of creation - and what is the ecosystem but the entirety of the individual organisms and species?
The ecosystem consists of the relationships between organisms as much as it does the organisms themselves. You might as well say a painting is a load of pigments or a symphony a bunch of air vibration.
The very interesting ecclesiastical calendar and creation tangent should be continued on another thread, please.
@Alan29 , the Ship's guideline is that one verse of a hymn is fair use and means hosts don't need to check copyright status; this can apply even for old hymns if the version quoted is in any way modified, so I've hidden most of the verses you quoted, leaving two showing to make it clear the version isn't the usual one. We would ask for a link for the rest; in this case the version appeared in the Communion at Greenbelt this year - here.
Nenya
Ecclesiantics Host
[/Hostly Hint]
And thank you for the valiant attempt to get the thread back on track.
No worries.
*Praise, my soul, the King of heaven - Henry Lyte / LAUDA ANIMA
Our God is a great big God - Jo & Nigel Hemming
(Children left for their own groups at this point)
Jesus, I’ve forgotten the words that you have spoken (Lord have mercy) - Steve Merkel
To be in your presence - Noel Richards
*The Lord's my shepherd (And I will trust in Him alone) - Stuart Townend
Lord, for the years - Timothy Dudley-Smith / LORD OF THE YEARS
*Reputed to be two of Her Majesty's favourite hymns, although I suspect she was more familiar with CRIMOND than Stuart Townend's reworking
Apart from the usual Mass parts
In the land there is a hunger
Amazing grace
Eagle's wings
God save our gracious Quing.
People sang lustily for the whole thing and numbers were back to pre-Covid norms of 130+.
The bishop had planned a Pastoral letter on Bernadette of Lourdes who's body parts are being paraded around the country for those who find such things meaningful. Happily he replaced it with a (for once) half tolerable one on the Queen.
All people that on earth do dwell
Come Holy Ghost our hearts inspire
Amazing Grace
My song is love unknown
The King of love my shepherd is
"I will sing the wondrous story" (Hyfrdol).
"The Lord's my shepherd" (Townend version).
"Loving shepherd of thy sheep" (Buckland).
"Come, let us sing of a wonderful love" (Wonderful love).
"Lord of the years".
Organ prelude: Rhosymedre
Hymns were
Lord for the years
All my hope on God is founded
O God our help in ages past.
National Anthem.
The choir sang Parry’s My soul, there is a country.
Postlude: Elegy ( Thalben-Ball )
King of glory, King of peace - Gwalchmai
Lord, we thank you - Austria*
Father, Lord of all creation - Abbot's Leigh*
Dear Lord and Father of mankind - Repton
God save the King
* Interesting to have had both Austria and Abbot's Leigh, which was written during the war to avoid having to sing Austria ...
I don't think we had any quings, but then the words were printed on the order of service!
All People that on Earth do Dwell
Praise my Soul the King of Heaven (even though we sang this last week!)
The Lord's my Shepherd (Crimond)
All my Hope on God is Founded
God Save the King
(The latter was a bit controversial - we are a URC/Baptist Ecumenical partnership, and while the URC church would expect to sing the National Anthem at a time like this, among the Baptists it was a little unusual.)
There's a wideness in God's mercy
Amazing grace
Praise my soul the King of heaven
Lord Jesus Christ, You have come to us
The national anthem
Words were supplied separately on paper for the last item, but having had to learn both standard verses as a Brownie, I always tend to sing that from memory, and now update the pronouns in my head.
The hymns turned out to be most suitable after all.
O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness (Was Lebet)
King of glory, King of peace (Gwalchmai)
Father of Heaven, whose love profound (Song 5)
The King of love my Shepherd is (Dominus Regit me)
God save our gracious Quing.
[/quote]
Is that to say that you sang a mixture or a combination of God Save the Queen and God Save the King?
Thats the one.
Setting Missa de Angelis plainsong
Motets
Hear my prayer, O Lord Purcell
Ave verum corpus Byrd
Psalm 121 Walford Davies
Hymns
How sweet the name of Jesus St Peter
Ye servants of God your master proclaim Paderborn
Lord, it belongs not to my care St Botolph
Guide me, O thou great Redeemer Cwm Rhondda
Voluntary
Fantasia & Fugue in C minor BWV 562 JS Bach
Plus 2 verses of the National Anthem between blessing and final hymn.
That Purcell and Byrd, and psalm chant too.
And sublime Bach to end. I think the organist at St Giles played the Bach too.
So I discovered.
The mayors, chief constable, Lord Lieutenant etc were there. Lord Lieutenant read the Epistle and the Anglican Bishop of Warrington led the bidding prayers.
Communion was interesting. Many clergy communicated the very large congregation, some of whom had to be chased down the aisles by servers and told they had to eat the thing that had been put into their hands. Sidesmen invited people to approach the altar a row at a time and there was no indication either spoken or written about what people were meant to be doing. Meanwhile the Archbishop went to the ecumenical clergy and blessed them individually, spending several seconds laying hands on their heads. I turned to Mrs Alan and commented "Blimey, he"s ordaining them!"
We transferred the Exaltation of the Cross, so we sang the rather beautiful antiphons for the psalms for the feast but managed to get Vexilla Regis Prodeunt (The Royal Banners Forward Go) as the hymn at the Liturgy. I even managed to throw in what little I could remember of Maxim Kovalevsky's harmonies.
It is among my favourite hymns, and the marriage of words and tune is sublime.
Ended with Tell out my soul, with its very ugly drop at the end.
"King of kings, majesty" (Jarrod Cooper).
"The servant king" (Kendrick).
"The Lord is King! I own his power" (Niagara).
"Jesus shall reign where'er the sun" (Truro).
I've been to Franeker, a charming little town (population about 13000) with an enormous mediaeval church now adapted (not too drastically) for Reformed worship.
The words and music of the hymns (and the Bible readings) are projected onto the screen on YouTube, so they're easy to follow. We had (amongst a couple of Dutch hymns unknown to me):
Morning has broken to Bunessan;
A version of the Sanctus sung immediately after the baptism, to Schubert's Deutschemesse;
Thank you for every new good morning to the tune familiar in England (not sure of the name);
Love divine, all loves excelling to the tune by Stainer.
All sung in Dutch, except for Thank you which was in Friesian dialect!
Yesterday afternoon I sang Evensong with the RSCM Scottish Voices in St. John's Episcopal Church, Greenock - the first time I've sung full, proper Choral Evensong since I came back to Scotland:
Introit: Day by day - Martin How (in memoriam)
Preces & Responses: Tomkins
Psalm 89: 1-19 - E J Hopkins
Mag & Nunc: Noble in B minor
Anthem: My soul, there is a country* - Parry
Hymns:
Abide with me - Eventide
The day thou gavest, Lord, is ended - St. Clement
* The anthem was to have been O thou the central orb, but was changed in the light of Circumstances.
I'm delighted to report that the Responses didn't feature any quings, at least not during the service. I'm not entirely convinced that our conductor (who was cantoring and has a wry sense of humour) didn't deliberately forget to change his copy before the rehearsal for comic effect.
This morning's offerings at St. P's were a little more prosaic:
All things bright and beautiful - All Things Bright & Beautiful
In Christ there is no east or west - Kilmarnock
O worship the King - Hanover
O Lord of every shining constellation - O Perfect Love
Ye servants of God - Franconia
and a rather odd verse of a prayer of thanks for the Queen, set to Repton.
O - should have been Blaenwern ?
ISWYM, but they may sing another hymn to Blaenwern - I watch the service most weeks, so will listen out for it...
@Piglet - The day thou gavest was My Old Mum's favourite hymn, and I can't sing it these days without Eye Leakage, as it reminds me so much of her.
Our PP only knows the dreary Stainer, so I only get to play the PROPER tune when he is away.
The church has no choir, but the congregation, usually well over 100 strong, but more this morning on account of the doopdienst - baptism - sings well.
Then he can learn.
We had:
Ye servants of God
Take my life Lord let it be (whoever "modernised" this lacked the poetic talents of the original author; when you have to rewrite the whole thing because half the lines end in "thee" it's time to accept that it's best left alone)
Lord you sometimes speak in wonders (STUTTGART)
We lay our broken world
O Jesus I have promised (WOLVERCOTE, because THORNBURY sounds silly with these words)
All people that on earth do dwell
Lord of the years
Great is thy faithfulness
Guide me O thou great Redeemer
Motet: God be in my head ( Rutter. )
This evening: ( not evensong but a special liturgy)
We stand to mourn a Sovereign ( Thaxted )
The Lord’s my shepherd ( Crimond)
All my hope on God is Founded
Motet: Thou knowest Lord ( Purcell)
Abide with me
National Anthem
Nunc Dimittis ( Hylton Stewart )
Odd, isn't it, especially if Abide with me doesn't have any particular sentimental meaning for you...
Is your evening liturgy based on the C of E's provision for a Memorial Service? I'm not sure what FatherInCharge has planned - there may not even be any hymns (apart from God Save The King) if our organist can't attend.