Thursday 21 April 2011

Five Unitarian Hymns for Easter

I have chosen these hymns for my service on Easter Sunday. They are all from the 2010 book, Sing Your Faith.

SF 105 Easter Hymn
SF 002 Was Gott Thrut choir
SF 044 Sine Nomine choir
SF 076 I Saw Thee Ships write alt
SF 172 Donne Secours write alt


SF 105 Easter Hymn [Nature Shouts from Earth and Sky]

Nature shouts from earth and sky, Alleluia!
In the spring our spirits fly, Alleluia!
Join the resurrection cry, Alleluia!
Love is God and fears must die, Alleluia!

Mary's son, Christ Jesus, died, Alleluia!
Killed by humans full of pride, Alleluia!
Such a loss of such a friend, Alleluia!
Yet the cross was not the end, Alleluia!

Out of death his spirit sings, Alleluia!
Love to all the earth he brings, Alleluia!
Telling nations, war must cease, Alleluia!
Sisters, brothers, join in peace, Alleluia!

Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Jew, Alleluia!
All are ways for love in you, Alleluia!
Many rainbows share one sun, Alleluia!
In the many, God is one, Alleluia!
Richard Boeke


SF 002 Was Gott Thrut choir [A Promise Through the Ages Rings]

A promise through the ages rings,
That always, always, something sings.
Not just in May, in finch-filled bower,
But in December's coldest hour,
A note of hope sustains us all.

A life is made of many things:
Bright stars, bleak years, and broken rings.
Can it be true that through all things,
There always, always something sings?
The universal song of life.

Entombed within our deep despair,
Our pain seems more than we can bear;
But days shall pass and nature knows
that deep beneath the winter snow
A rose lies curled and hums its song.

For something always, always sings.
This is the message Easter brings:
From deep despair and perished things
A green shoot always, always springs,
And something always, always sings.

Alicia S. Carpenter


SF 044 Sine Nomine [Give Thanks for Life]

Give thanks for life, the measure of our days,
Mortal, we pass through beauty that decays,
Yet sing to god our hope, our love, our praise:
Alleluia, Alleluia!

Give thanks for those whose lives shone with a light
Caught from the Christ-flame, gleaming through the night,
Who touched the truth, who burned for what is right:
Alleluia, Alleluia!

Give thanks for all, our living and our dead,
Thanks for the love by which our life is fed,
A love not changed by time or death or dread:
Alleluia, Alleluia!

Give thanks for hope that like a seed of grain
Lying in darkness, does its life retain
To rise in glory, growing green again:
Alleluia, Alleluia!

Shirley Erena Murray; (C) 1987 Hope Publishing Company Carol Stream


SF 076 I Saw Thee Ships [In Spring I saw the Easter Tree]

In spring I saw the Easter tree,
The Easter tree, the Easter tree;
In spring I saw the Easter tree,
The fairest gift in the garden.

'Twas tall and broad and fine to see,
And fine to see, and fine to see;
'Twas tall and broad and fine to see,
The fairest tree in the garden.

The tree it was an evergreen,
An evergreen, an evergreen;
The tree it was an evergreen,
The fairest tree in the garden.

Its fruit did taste of pure delight,
Of pure delight, of pure delight,
Its fruit did taste of pure delight,
The fairest tree in the garden.

And of that fruit all may partake,
All may partake, all may partake;
And of that fruit all may partake,
The fairest tree in the garden.

Francis Simons


SF 172 Donne Secours write alt [This is the Truth that Passes Understanding]

This is the truth that passes understanding,
This is the joy to all forever free,
Life springs from death and shatters ev'ry fetter,
And winter turns to spring eternally.

Robert Terry Weston

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