Category Archives: song

Born in the Elsie Inglis

The thirst for faith may take you far away
Or call you to serve the sick, the poor each day,
To make your mark and seeing all this say
You were born in the Elsie Inglis

Your heart of hope may open every door,
Open to every stranger and clothe more,
Ready to aid all others at you core:
You were born in the Elsie Inglis.

The way of love be ever in your sight,
As hand in hand we work in great delight
Ready to build the kindom of the light
We were born in the Elsie Inglis

JAL 25.11.2017

In memory of Elsie Inglis (1864-1917), doctor of medicine, Served in WW1, her 100th anniversary is this week. A maternity hospital is named after her in Edinburgh. Her memorial in St Giles cathedral includes the figures of Faith, Hope and Love.

The Carol of the Adverts

As you must have realised the word Advent has only one letter different from Advert. Here’s a little seasonal ditty for those who’s Advent is all about those long awaited seasonal Adverts.

Hark the Christmas advert brings
Quite a lot of Christmas things:
Queues in shops and lots of post,
How to be a heavenly host.
Don’t forget your Christmas pud!
It must be especially good,
Served with turkey and with sprouts,
There’s no room for shopping doubts.
Hark the Christmas advert’s here,
Sing along and give a cheer.

(note the last line could end ‘have a beer’, for those sponsored by the brewing industry)

JAL 24.11.2017
Tune is Mendelssohn

Bridging another Gap

There are lots of gaps along the Wall. Here are some more prayers to fill the gaps.

Prayer in four directions
I look to the east, from where the sun rises; as the day begins prepare me, body, mind and spirit, for the adventures of today.
I look to the south, as the sun climbs to miday, may my body, mind and spirit be focused on following Christ’s way today.
I look to the north, as the sun passes the zenith and begins to fall, may my body, mind and spirit not fall or fail today.
I look to the west, where the sun sets in a blaze of glory, giving thanks for the day, for the working together of my body, mind and spirit,
Glory to you, God of all directions.

Beside still water
Hush, hush, hush, be still
And know that I am God.
Purple heather, purple fireweed,
Purple thistles , purple knapweed,
Ripening raspberries:
Purple was the Emperor’s colour.
Here, now it is nature’s glory
And homage to the Living God.

Remnant of a pilgrim song
We will walk, we will walk,
Every step that we take,
Every prayer that we make,
We will go on our way with God.

We know a song or two

Just at the Southend of the Kintyre peninsula is a small ruined chapel, some caves and a well linked to St Columba by what are said to be his footprints.
He is said to have stopped here in 563 on his way to Iona. The Antrim coast is visible and pilgrims made the crossing from there up until the mid 18th century.
The graveyards have a long history and many stories, not least the three grandsons of the local minister lost in WW1. My song was ‘Jesus, remember them’.
We took the switchback Road that leads to the Mull of Kintyre, ruminating on opening a Paul McCartney theme park in a local disused hotel. At the end of the public road the small car park was almost empty. We set off downhill to the lighthouse 2 kms away. There were many Magpie Moths trying to navigate in the wind, and a lovely range of flowering plants including heather, harebell and scabious.
The downward journey took half an hour and the journey back, with 280 metres of ascent only 50 minutes, which given the rather relentless gradient was satisfying. We could see the rain clouds gathering over the Antrim coast. Obviously there was only one song for this part of the journey. Join in when you know it…. Mull of Kintyre

Over my head, I hear music in the air:
There must be a God somewhere

A house of pain

The Church has become a house of pain because our Church is sick with deep forgetfulness of our deepest identity: that we are missionary, that we are a Church “called to come out of itself” …the biblical tradition of lamentation teaches us that denial of our pain and sorrow is not an option. Every biblical lamentation ends in hope: hope for rebirth, hope that the Lord’s love has not been exhausted.
From Divine Renovation by Fr James Mallon

Calling One, has your love been exhausted?
Mine has, in so many ways and places.
I only seem to have a little left
and in itself that is painful to me,
when I remember all the love filled times and places
and compare them with this pitiful situation.
I am sad, and have been for some time:
Sad enough to be sick, and sick of sadness,
But unable to leave sadness behind.
I have left the church of my youth behind me:
I opened the doors and stepped outside.
Although I was called ‘a breath of fresh air’
I heard the door bang shut behind me.
I am exhausted from lamenting all of this:
My love has poured out onto hard ground,
Soaked into the parched cracks and is gone.
It is not just my eyes that weep,
but every part of me feels heavy;
my guts twist and turn, my back aches from the load.
How I wish I could put down this sorrow and leave this pain behind.
As I go out each morning, ready for each new encounter
I know I am fortunate to meet those who yearn to know you.
A child comes running towards me,
A youth begins a conversation
And each time my heart takes a joyful jump.
When we sing together or remember the stories,
Then my heart glows warm again.
Calling One, your love has not been exhausted;
I rejoice that it is new every morning.

In our life and our believing
The Love of God

(The initial quote is one of the daily quotes I receive as a Seeker in the Lay Community of St Benedict)

JAL:17.05.2017

By the rivers of Babylon

By the rivers of Babylon
We sat down and remembered
Zion,
How can we sing God’s song in a strange land?

By a small stream trickling off the Derbyshire moors, I sat down, and remembered.
I remembered the story of the One who lived and loved and lost and lived again.
I remembered the route, or some of it, that I had taken to follow that Way.
I remembered my companions, the living and the dead.
I remembered the communities with which I had retold the story and tried to follow the Way, the living and the dead.
I heard the water moving over the rocks, singing its own song, to an age old tune.
I heard the birds singing their song in the trees and I heard the breeze moving through the branches.
I remembered that if Christ’s disciples are silent then these rocks, this water, this air will all sing aloud and praise God;
And the fire will be lit again in my heart, and I too will praise God.
I will continue on the living Way, whether the land is strange or well known.
I will remembered the songs and stories that have sustained us.
I will listen and give voice to new songs and stories as they come to me in the air.

In our life and our believing
The love of God

on a cold and frosty morning

Today I went for a walk with Preschool. There were about 18 of us and we put on our coats and wellies and went out to look for frost and ice, or which we found some patches. We also found some frozen leaves that were quite crisp, and a pond covered in the green algae. I know it was green algae because one four year old boy told me what it was. We sang a well known song, but we kept changing the words depending on our experiences. Rather than going ’round the mulberry bush’ we went ’round the pond’ and ‘looked at the algae’ and so on. The other pond was still and clear and just like a mirror reflecting back the winter branches. Altogether our walk took about 20 minutes. It reminded me of the ideas about Forest Church I read last year. This was a good short act of adoration and exploration. I look forward to more similar opportunities in the days ahead.

December 20th, O Key of David

D for David, the Key of David,

Ray, a shaft of morning light,

Me, the one who needs the key,

Far, a long way out of sight,

So, I’m waiting here in hope,

La, I’ll sing a waiting song,

T, the first letter of Truth,

That will bring us back to D (for David).

Apologies for borrowing this idea from Rogers and Hammerstein!

Song for Aleppo

All of this term we have been thinking about Aleppo and the children living there under seige. Here is a song for Aleppo. Please sing it – the tune is Forest Green (the tune we use for O little town of Bethlehem).

O broken city of Aleppo,
Before our eyes you die.
We see the dust we see the blood,
And hear your wretched cry.
But we are too distracted,
Can’t think of what to say;
We turn you off, we block you out;
Will you survive today?

O shattered city of Aleppo,
We hear your weeping still;
As bombs and bullets everywhere
Seek out children to kill.
We see your tweets and videos
Not sure what to believe;
But unlike you besieged, denied
We can turn off and leave.

O ruined city of Aleppo
For you I sing lament;
For you I pray now every day,
My intentions are well meant
For Christ was born in Bethlehem
Two thousand years ago,
But every day on your cruel streets
Children all hope forgo.

Chapel outdoors

Beyond the chapel door there are lots of places to choose for an outdoor chapel opportunity. There’s the playground, where we once danced ‘Lord of the dance’ and a piece of grass where we once did ‘The Enormous Turnip ‘.
This school year I was determined to hold chapel outdoors sometimes after reading about The Forest Church Movement. I love to worship in the open air myself so I really wanted to introduce this option more regularly. I also wanted to emphasise that we don’t just do chapel in chapel.
So far this term (currently it’s week 5) we’ve had Preschool Chapel Storytime outside, in their own playground. We did a circle story about a boat in a stormy sea making the wind and waves together followed by some songs.
We also had years 1 and 2 chapel outside when we did the Jesus life line string game. I have described this activity before: you need a long bit of string and some pegs. We put pegs on the string together as we remember things from Jesus’ life.
Today we had chapel for years 3 to 6 outside on the grass tennis court (no tennis happening at the time). It was a bit last minute as I had only discovered the chapel was not available 10 minutes before we were due to start.
We did a rather bigger circle activity with about 60 children in the circle. As we sang the song ‘He’s got the whole world in his hands ‘ We passed a world around the circle. It was quite windy but nothing like Haiti so we spent a moment thinking of children there and in other parts if the Caribbean experiencing extreme weather conditions today. Then we threw the ball to each other as we prayed for people and places we are concerned about: our families, our school, children in other countries including Syria and Pakistan and homeless people were some if them.
It was about 10 minutes altogether but enough to mark the end if the school day.

On our school and on our working
The help of God

Notes from Chapel

a blog from Silcoates Chapel