By Daniel Martins
During my education at a decidedly non-liturgical Christian liberal arts college in the early 1970s, because I was a music major, I was required to learn the vocabulary associated with the ... Read More...
By Ephraim Radner
We all have strong views about hymns. My standard is whether they can be remembered in prison, be sung aloud, and have a practical immediacy capable of encouraging those in the cell next do... Read More...
By Amber Noel
Jesus our brother, strong and good
Was humbly born in a stable rude,
And the friendly beasts around him stood,
Jesus our brother, strong and good.
“I,” said the donkey, shaggy and brown,
“I carried his mother up hill and down.
“I carried h... Read More...
By Peter C. Schellhase
A few Christmases ago I learned that “O Holy Night,” that Christmas Eve staple, is based on a quite serviceable French carol, “Minuit, Chrétiens,” by Placide Cappeau. But the differenc... Read More...
By Jean McCurdy Meade
For all the Saints who from their labors rest. (Hymnal 287)
I sing a song of the saints of God (Hymnal 293)
O when the saints go marching in (African-American Spiritual)
These two hym... Read More...
By Steve Schlossberg
The only thing complained about in church more often than the lousy sermon is the lousy music. Bad preaching we learn to begrudgingly tolerate because we find ourselves without alternative. In our tradition, it is extremely difficult to... Read More...
By Mark Michael
We sang “This is My Father’s World” at least once every year in the church of my childhood, on the Sunday of the church picnic at the town park. This was about the only hymn we knew that ment... Read More...
By Mark Clavier
There’s an old tradition of finding Easter in nature. This can be seen especially in Christian poetry, perhaps most famously in Venantius Honorius Fortunatus’ 6th-century Easter hymn, “Hail T... Read More...