This is a socially aware text by Shirley Erena Murray set to a traditional sounding tune by Hal Hopson. Listen to the sample at AOV. You can get a copy of the sheet music, without chords, from Hope publishing.
My backing is fake organ at 90 bpm.
1. Here in the busy city now let the Church be seen
Where lesser gods are worshipped in money and machine;
Where news is but sensation, the Good News hardly heard
Now let the Church take action in living out the Word!
2. In policies and planning the Church be there to speak
To moderate the powerful, to argue for the weak:
Where law must sit in judgment and love is little known,
There at the crisis centre the Christ concern be shown.
3. Where litter chokes the gutter and people go to waste,
Where joblessness is bitter and living lost its taste
To underleavened people the proof of rising yeast,
In lives devoid of flavour be saltiness released.
4. Here in the busy city God walks on every street
In generous or greedy, the honest or the cheat,
And daily we must offer the good that goes unpriced
With vigour and with vision the lifestyle of the Christ.
© Hope Publishing Company & Shirley Erena Murry
NB Shirley Erena Murray’s work may be accessed here at Hope Publishing and may be printed as a one off copy. Absolutely no alterations are to be made to the text. Any other use requires permission from the author.