Church Music

This is another of Michael Mangan’s songs for children that I must have done at a children’s gathering when my children were younger. It is an advent chant really, and nothing in the lyrics would stop it being used for everyone. It is available in the Sing Your Joy collection.

Chorus

Come Lord Jesus, come.

Come Lord Jesus, come.

Come Lord Jesus, come.

Verse 1

Watching for the Lord of Light,

Waiting for the Light of love,

Ready for him when he comes.

Chorus

Verse 2

Make a path for God to come.

Let God fill your heart with life,

Turning darkness into light.

Chorus

Verse 3

Bringing hope to those who fear,

Joy and freedom soon to all,

Lighting up the world with truth.

Chorus

Verse 4

Promised Saviour soon to come,

Son of Mary, Son of God,

Christ our Saviour, Christ our Light.

Chorus

© Litmus Publications 1995.

This song is one of the most looked at on this site, which is a testament to the quality of Michael Mangan’s song. However my post has problems that are not entirely of my making, but that I should try to fix. By the way, if you don’t want to get As One Voice: the Next Generation to get this music, you can get it in a collection at Litmus Publications.

The music we used for years had no notes for the second and third verse, so we just guessed how it went and when I made the backing I used the bones of an old one and didn’t redo the notes for the second and third verse so they are all wrong and that makes learning the song from my backing, which is the whole point of the thing, very difficult.

The other problem is that the song has been completely redone by Michael with a completely different arrangement, including the chords and notes and lyrics being altered.

In addition the backing I made wasn’t very good so I’ve had two more goes.  The first is a better version of the way we play it, with the notes for the second and third verses somewhat sorted out:

Verse 1

We come from ancient dreamtime,
From the bush, or by the sea.
We come from a thousand city streets,
We are the rich and lowly,
We are the poor and strong,
We come to share this moment,
Gathering here, singing one song

Chorus

With our hearts on fire with the love of Jesus
Hearts on fire, let’s spread the Word
Hearts on fire, feel the Spirit blazing
Hearts on fire
Called to live the Good News in this land
Setting hearts on fire, with our hearts on fire
Setting hearts on fire

Verse 2

We long to live in freedom, we yearn for unity
We dream of justice, joy and peace
Spirit fill us with your power
Jesus help us live your call
O Creator give us wisdom
So we will be Good News for all

Chorus

Verse 3

We are the voice of Jesus
We are His hearts and hands
We are His body in our land
Stand up! Live the story
To all the world proclaim
Go out to all creation
Lighting the fire, fanning the flames

Chorus

The second is the arrangement in As One Voice: the Next Generation, which in retrospect, is what I should have done in the first place.  This has the different first verse:

Verse 1

We gather as one people, called to share this mystery.

We bring our joys, our hopes, our dreams.

We are the rich and lonely, we are the poor and strong.

We come to share this moment,

Gathering here, singing one song.   etc.

I hope this helps. I still think the original arrangement is far superior, but I will admit it nearly killed me to play until I got used to it.

I think we only used this for one Easter when we had a real music director who didn’t work out. Apart from the verses being too high, probably designed for a cantor, it sounds a fine song by David Haas. You can hear a sample and buy the music at GIA here. The echoing descant is good if you can bring it off.

If you are just using guitar it suggests capo 1, so just forget the capo to bring it down a semitone, or better yet bring it all the way down to F.

Just to remind myself, I’ve already blogged As One Voice Volumes 1,2 and Next Gen and am currently working through a miscellaneous file of songs we have done at church over the years that aren’t in As One Voice. Maybe they should be the As One Voice X-Files.

That means I’m also trying to figure out where these came from, as they were often found by musicians before my time and sometimes they are hand written. I can remember being so annoyed at having to read one of these scraps that I made a printed copy on an old version of a notation program and years later magically found a copy of my version when helping out at a church miles away.

This is a two part round by Jack Miffleton, that can be purchased at OCP. It has uses for any dark/light symbolism, but I’d love to hear an assembly do it as a round as the Easter Vigil procession enters.

My backing is a render of an ancient MIDI file that appears to have been made from scratch rather than my usual method of using Band in a Box.

Christ is light, in him there is no darkness.
Come to him and he will give you light.

© NALR 1984.

This is a song for children by Michael Mangan that I’ve played at first communions. There’s a fair bit going on rhythmically for a kids song, with triplets and the hanging dotted notes in “shine our light” and “shine shine shine” to contend with, but that makes the song memorable. You can buy it as part of the “Sing Your Joy” collection here, which would be an asset for any church wanting fully conscious and active participation by children.

Verse 1

We gathered here today, we shared God’s word,

We are chosen children of God, we have been called on to serve.

Chorus

For we are children of the light, going on our way,

Keep it burning bright, we’ve got to shine our light,

We’ve got to shine, shine, shine, ev’ry day.

Verse 2

God’s hands are laid on us, our faith confirmed.

We go to witness now, we are God’s voice here on earth.

Chorus

Verse 3

We remembered Jesus’ life, as we shared His meal,

The Spirit sends us out, open our hearts to God’s will.

Chorus

© Litmus Productions 1993.

We used this Advent/Christmas sing by Marty Haugen for many years and I still think it is a beautiful piece of music.

The text is here (scroll down). You can hear a sample at GIA here. I can’t find a single sheet for sale there, but it can be purchased here.

The very last line of the last verse is followed by an echo.

In the middle of a hot summer at Christmas time it is hard to get enthusiastic about lines like “warm our winter night” and that might be why we give it a miss now.

You can hear a choir rehearse the song here.

This Monica Brown song must have been in a school liturgy I helped out with – they really wanted my son the drummer so I carried the drums and strummed a bit. You can hear a sample and buy the music from her website here. This song is written with Australia in mind but I love the idea of Northern hemisphere kids singing about their “southern land”, since we get to sing all the seasonally inappropriate Northern hemisphere songs.

I suspect a teacher objected to the “gonna”s and replaced them with “here to”s – I prefer gonna, which acknowledges participation over proper English.

My backing aims for a 60s girl group flavour.

Chorus

We’re gonna celebrate, yes we are,

We’re gonna celebrate who we are.

We’re gonna celebrate the spirit here,

The spirit of this southern land.

Celebrate it. Celebrate it.

Celebrate, celebrate, the spirit here.

Verse 1

In the outback town and desert plains,

You can feel it here, the spirit here.

In golden fields and rolling hills,

You can feel it here, the spirit here.

In rivers and seas and mountain tops,

In country towns and city streets.

It’s ev’rywhere you go, in ev’ry place you know.

The spirit’s here.

Chorus

Verse 2

In the people you meet on any street,

You can feel it here, the spirit here.

In the way we live, work and play,

You can feel it here, the spirit here.

In our hearty laugh and silent tears,

In what we hold dear to us,

It’s ev’rywhere you go, in ev’ry one you know.

The spirit’s here.

Chorus (key change)

© Monica Brown and Emmaus Productions 2001.

This is a Marty Haugen song that I like but didn’t catch on locally. It is in his “All Are Welcome” collection and I bought that to get “The Hand of God Shall Hold You” and found the Eucharist song in the collection, well, because I’m always looking for Eucharist songs.

The text is here (scroll down).

The refrain uses bread, fish, wine or room depending on what was sung in the preceding verse. I can’t imagine anyone doing ten verses, so pick those that fit the liturgy.

It probably should be done call and response, but we did it unison. It goes too high in the verse so guitarists might as well leave the capo off one and bring it down half a tone.

You can hear at sample and buy the music at GIA here. This is a sweet version.

I came across this song by Bernadette Farrell when going through Spirit & Song looking for new communion songs.  I was initially taken with the text and was pleased to find the tune was just as good. We have used it, but not frequently unfortunately. You can hear a sample and buy the sheet music here. This choir sings it forever but can only be heard properly from several minutes in. You can hear the original in full here.

We can’t do it quite as slowly as intended – my backing is at 65 bpm.

Refrain
Bread for the world:
a world of hunger.
Wine for all peoples:
people who thirst.
May we who eat
be bread for others.
May we who drink
pour out our love.

1. Lord Jesus Christ,
you are the bread of life,
broken to reach
and heal the wounds
of human pain.
Where we divide your people,
you are waiting there
on bended knee
to wash our feet with endless care.

Refrain

2. Lord Jesus Christ,
you are the wine of peace,
poured into hearts once broken
and where dryness sleeps.
Where we are tired and weary,
you are waiting there
to be the way which beckons us
beyond despair.

Refrain

3. Lord Jesus Christ,
you call us to your feast,
at which the rich and pow’rful
have become the least.
Where we survive on others
in our human greed,
you walk among us
begging for your ev’ry need.

Refrain

© Bernadette Farrell 1990.

This song has always been very popular at our church.  It is by Michael B. Lynch, otherwise known as Ukelele Mike. (To digress, it is a sin not to learn the uke – or to put it another way, buy my brother’s book.)

This is very singable Eucharist song and so will always find a place. I’ve read objections to “symbol of Your love,” as denying real presence, but this is a narrow view of symbol ignoring the idea that symbols are real -much more real than prosaic arguments over the nature of transubstantiation.

You can buy it from OCP here, and listen to an exceptional piano version here.

I fear we haven’t always been as delicate and gentle with this one as we should have been.

Verse 1
Jesus, you’re the one I love,
You’re the one I know.
You’re the one who makes me strong,
Spirit in my soul.
From the clouds of yesterday,
Through the night of pain,

Teach me, Lord, to know your way

Know it once again.

Refrain
Bread, blessed and broken for us all;
Symbol of Your love from the grain so tall.
Bread, blessed and broken for us all;
Bread of life you give to us, bread of life for all.

Verse 2
May the bread we break today,

May the cup we share,

Lift the burdens of our hearts,
Lift them ev’rywhere.
Passing on to each of us,

A measure of your love

Love to make us whole again,

As we share your Word.

Refrain

© Raven Music 1978,1979.