Notes on the Notes – May 7, 2023

Celebrating 60 Years of U.C.W.!

This week’s music: 

“There’s a Voice in the Wilderness Crying” (VU #18)

“There’s a voice in the wilderness crying, a call from the ways untrod:
            Prepare in the desert a highway, a highway for our God!
            The valleys shall be exalted, the lofty hills brought low;
            Make straight all the crooked places where God, our God, may go!

O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up to the heights and sing!
            Proclaim to a desolate people the coming of their King.
            Like the flowers of the field they perish, like grass our works decay;
            The power and pomp of nations shall pass, like a dream, away.

But the world of our God endureth, whose are is ever strong;
            God stands in the midst of nations, and soon will right the wrong.
            God shall feed the flock like a shepherd, the lambs so gently hold;
            To pastures of peace will lead them, and bring them safe to fold.

There’s a voice in the wilderness crying, a call from the ways untrod:
            Prepare in the desert a highway, a highway for our God!
            The valleys shall be exalted, the lofty hills brought low;
            Make straight all the crooked places where God, our God, may go!”

This hymns reminds us of John the Baptist, who heralded the coming of the new Messiah.   Often, on our journey in the wilderness, we need someone to point us in the right direction.   This hymn commemorates the union in 1925 of the Canadian Congregational and Methodist churches with a large portion of the Canadian Presbyterian churches to form the United Church of Canada.  The author, James Lewis Milligan, a journalist and lay Methodist preacher, was the director of public relations for the uniting churches between 1922 and 1925.  Henry Hugh Bancroft, organist and choirmaster of All Saints’ Cathedral (Anglican) in Edmonton, composed the music.

Hear the hymn at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWkbuGFDbbk

“Christ Has No Body Now But Yours” (MV #171)

The words of this hymn were adapted by Stephen C. Warner in 2003 from the original poem by St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582).  They challenge us to be Christ’s body in the world today, carrying on Jesus’ work of love, justice and compassion.

“Christ has no body but yours, no hands but yours.
Here on this earth, yours is the work, to serve with the joy of compassion.

No hands but yours to heal the wounded world,
no hands but yours to soothe all its suffering,
no touch but yours to bind the broken hope of the people of God.

No eyes but yours to see as Christ would see,
to find the lost, to gaze with compassion;
no eyes but yours to glimpse the holy joy of the city of God.

No feet but yours to journey with the poor,
To walk this world with mercy and justice.
Yours are the steps to build a lasting peace for the children of God.

Through ev’ry gift, give back to those in need;
as Christ has blessed, so now be his blessing,
with ev’ry gift a benediction be to the people of God.”

Born in Spain, Teresa entered a Carmelite convent when she was eighteen, and later earned a reputation as a mystic, reformer, and writer who experienced divine visions. She founded a convent, and wrote the book The Way of Perfection for her nuns. The music used in More Voices was written in 2006 by Rick Gunn, a United Church musician from Bedford, Nova Scotia.

“Your Work, O God, Needs Many Hands”  (VU #537)

“Your work, O God, needs many hands to help you everywhere,
And some there are who cannot serve unless our gifts we share.

Because we love you and your work, our offering now we make:
Be pleased to use it as your own, we ask for Jesus’ sake.”

Our offering response was written by Calvin Weiss Laufer in 1927, set to music composed by Neil Dougall (1831).

“We Celebrate Our History” 

“We celebrate our history, rejoice to know our past.
And thank God for those women who to the faith held fast.
They toiled in God’s service, they worshiped, worked & prayed
And following a vision they journeyed unafraid.

In this world of turmoil, the call of God we heed;
And to that call stay faithful, in action, word and deed.
Thus challenged by our purpose, and struggling on the way,
We journey where God leads us, toward a better day.

 We look toward the future, and joyfully we go
With faith into tomorrow the seeds of life to sow.
We follow still that vision, that will not be denied,
The coming of an Eden where all in love abide.”

The words for our closing hymn were written by Betty Turcott for the U.C.W. 50th Anniversary in 2002.  We will be using the tune for the hymn, “The Church’s One Foundation”(VU #331).