Church Music

Entrance:  A New Heart for a New World   (O’Brien/Watts) AOV 1/158

Gifts: A Trusting Psalm (Bates) AOV 1/115

Communion: I Have Loved You (Joncas) AOV 1/126

Recessional: On Eagles Wings (Joncas) AOV 1/153

Entrance: Christ be Our Light  (Farrell) AOV 2/3

Gifts: A New Commandment CWB II 443 (Unknown?)

Communion: The Servant Song (Gillard) AOV 2/169

Recessional: Here I Am Lord (Schutte) AOV 1/90

Entrance: Gather Your People (Hurd) AOV 1/71

Gifts: A Trusting Psalm (Bates) AOV 1/115

Communion:  Enemy of Apathy (Bell-Maule) AOV 2/75

Recessional:  Hearts on Fire (Mangan) AOV NG 62

Entrance: Christ Light, Shining in the Darkness (Grant) CWBII 468

Gifts: The Cry of the Poor (Foley) AOV 1/83  

Communion: A Place at the Table  (Shirley Erena Murray – Lori True) AOV NG 1

Recessional: Bring Forth the Kingdom (Haugen) AOV 2/4

The last of the Shirley Murray texts in Alleluia Aotearoa is another of her lovely Christmas songs.

The text and sheet music by Colin Gibson is at Hope Publishing.

My backing on Band in a Box uses approximate chords and completely ignores the suggestion to slow down in the last two bars.

Murray has left a marvellous legacy of words that convict and reveal a passion for justice. She also illustrates the usefulness of metrical texts. Her hymns are rooted in New Zealand and the seasons of the Southern Hemisphere. She is missed.

Shirley Murray has taken this difficult saying of Jesus and crafted a song of unity. It is from the collection Alleluia Aotearoa.

With the mother/brother rhyme a given, her words become an avalanche of outrageous rhymes: stigma/enigma; relate us/status, etc.

Read them all at Hope Publishing. Everyone wants to set Shirley and I suspect some used their own mother’s names as titles as a joke ie Who is my mother? Bronwen!

AA uses the setting by Ian Render, BRONWEN:

Hope Publishing give three settings:

JIATING by Lim Swee Hong:

HELEN by Jane Marshall:

… and KINDRED by Jack Schrader:

The latter is in more hymnals and appears to be the choice in the USA, based on You-Tube clips.

I think this is the same song freely arranged in a different genre.

I’m nearing the end of a very long series of Shirley Murray songs from Alleluia Aotearoa.

She did a lot of Christmas songs that are worthy of consideration. This has simple meaningful lyrics that are available at Hope Publishing, along with two settings.

MICHAELA by David Dell, which is also in AA:

…and CONCORD by Robert J.B. Fleming.

Those playing along at home will note that I have left out the essential song of mourning by Shirley Murray called, “When Human Voices Cannot Sing” AA 151. This is because it showed up in other hymnals and I have blogged it here.

“When We Lift Our Pack and Go” is a song that resonates in countries like New Zealand and Australia where many people are of immigrant origin and fated to be in places from which many people travel or leave for careers. The Madden’s, for example, came from Ireland in about 1860 and settled in the Ipswich area. Family legend says they were such lousy farmers that they became carpenters and are responsible for the pews in St Mary’s, Ipswich. Being very multicultural and on the receiving end of American and European media, makes many Australians and New Zealanders outward looking and on the move.

Hence a song with:

God is in the other place,

God is in another face,

in the faith we travel by,

God is in the other place.

The message that God is found in the stranger, and that journey and pilgrimage are rituals of trusting outside our comfort, are salutary thoughts.

The text and sheet music for Ian Render’s lovely setting are at Hope Publishing.

This is a Shirley Murray that takes us from Advent to Easter with a call to action from Alleluia Aotearoa.

The challenging text is at Hope Publishing, along with the sheet music for Colin Gibson’s setting, EXPECTATION.

My backing is a little strange.

I have already blogged the Colin Gibson setting of the Shirley Murray text honouring God in creation because it is in CWBII. That setting is also in Alleluia Aotearoa.

Hope Publishing have the text and two further settings.

AI HU by Lim Swee Hong:

EARTHGIFT by John Carter:

…and because everyone wants to set Shirley, even Tony Alonso has a version. The sheet music for that is at GIA.