Looking ahead to ANZAC Day this week, with hymns including Abide with me and Shirley Murray’s Honour the dead.
Poppy fields in Flanders Photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Poppies_Field_in_Flanders.jpg CC-BY-2.0 / Tijl Vercaemer
SONG: YE WATCHERS AND YE HOLY ONES
Artist: Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge
Words/Music: Athelstan Riley/Anon
Recording: Conifer 75605-51249
Ye watchers and ye holy ones,
Bright seraphs, cherubim and thrones,
Raise the glad strain, Alleluia!
Cry out, dominions, princedoms, powers,
Virtues, archangels, angels’ choirs:
Refrain:
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia!
O higher than the cherubim,
More glorious than the seraphim,
Lead their praises, Alleluia!
Thou bearer of th’eternal Word,
Most gracious, magnify the Lord.
Refrain:
Respond, ye souls in endless rest,
Ye patriarchs and prophets blest,
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Ye holy twelve, ye martyrs strong,
All saints triumphant, raise the song.
Refrain:
O friends, in gladness let us sing,
Supernal anthems echoing,
Alleluia! Alleluia!
To God the father, God the son,
And God the spirit, three in one.
Refrain:
SONG: JESUS LIVES!
Artist: Choir of Selwyn College, Cambridge/Sarah MacDonald (dir), Daveth Clark (org)
Words/Music: Christan Gellert trans Cox/Henry Gauntlett
Recording: Priory PRCD 714
Jesus lives! thy terrors now
Can, O Death, no more appal us;
Jesus lives! by this we know
Thou, O Grave, canst not enthrall us.
Alleluia!
Jesus lives! henceforth is death
But the gate of life immortal;
This shall calm our trembling breath,
When we pass its gloomy portal.
Alleluia!
Jesus lives! for us He died;
Then, alone to Jesus living,
Pure in heart may we abide,
Glory to our Saviour giving.
Alleluia!
Jesus lives! our hearts know well
Naught from us His love shall sever;
Life, nor death, nor powers of hell
Tear us from His keeping ever.
Alleluia!
Jesus lives! to Him the throne
Over all the world is given:
May we go where He is gone,
Rest and reign with Him in Heaven.
Alleluia!
SONG: O GOD, OUR HELP IN AGES PAST
Artist: Choir of Sheffield Cathedral
Words/Music: Isaac Watts/William Croft
Recording: Priory 713
O God, our help in ages past,
our hope for years to come,
our shelter from the stormy blast,
and our eternal home:
Under the shadow of thy throne
thy saints have dwelt secure;
sufficient is thine arm alone,
and our defense is sure.
Before the hills in order stood,
or earth received its frame,
from everlasting thou art God,
to endless years the same.
A thousand ages in thy sight
are like an evening gone,
short as the watch that ends the night
before the rising sun.
Time, like an ever rolling stream,
bears all our years away;
they fly forgotten, as a dream
dies at the opening day.
O God, our help in ages past,
our hope for years to come,
be thou our guard while troubles last,
and our eternal home.
SONG: EVENTIDE (ABIDE WITH ME)
Artist: Woolston Brass/David Gallagher
Words/Music: Henry Lyte/William Monk arr Kenneth Young
Recording: Woolston Brass CDWB3896340
[Arrangement of the tune ‘Eventide’ for brass band]
Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide;
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me.
I fear no foe, with thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness;
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if thou abide with me.
Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies;
Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.
SONG: HONOUR THE DEAD
Artist: Viva Voce/John Rosser (dir), Michael Bell (org)
Words/Music: Shirley Murray/Colin Gibson
Recording: NZ Hymnbook Trust 941300
Honour the dead, our country's fighting brave,
honour our children left in foreign grave,
where poppies blow and sorrow seeds her flowers,
honour the crosses marked forever ours.
Weep for the places ravaged by our blood,
weep for the young bones buried in the mud,
weep for the powers of violence and greed,
weep for the deals done in the name of need.
Honour the brave whose conscience was their call,
answered no bugle, went against the wall,
suffered in prisons of contempt and shame,
branded as cowards, in our country's name.
Weep for the waste of all that might have been,
weep for the cost that war has made obscene,
weep for the homes that ache with human pain,
weep that we ever sanction war again.
Honour the dream for which our nation bled,
held now in trust to justify the dead,
honour their vision on this solemn day:
peace known in freedom, peace the only way.
SONG: PRAYER FOR PEACE
Artist: St Thomas’ Music Group, Margaret Rizza (dir)
Words/Music: Margaret Rizza
Recording: Kevin Mayhew
Lead me from death to life,
from falsehood to truth;
lead me from despair to hope,
from fear to trust;
lead me from hate to love,
from war to peace,
let peace fill our hearts,
our world, our universe,
let peace fill our hearts,
our world, our universe,
peace, peace, peace.
SONG: O DAY OF PEACE
Artist: Choir of All Saints Episcopal Church, Beverly Hills/Thomas Foster (dir), Craig Phillips (org)
Words/Music: Carl Daw/Hubert Parry
Recording: Gothic 349074
O day of peace that dimly shines
through all our hopes and prayers and dreams,
guide us to justice, truth, and love,
delivered from our selfish schemes.
May swords of hate fall from our hands,
our hearts from envy find release,
till by God’s grace our warring world
shall see Christ’s promised reign of peace.
Then shall the wolf dwell with the lamb,
nor shall the fierce devour the small;
as beasts and cattle calmly graze,
a little child shall lead them all.
Then enemies shall learn to love,
all creatures find their true accord;
the hope of peace shall be fulfilled,
for all the earth shall know the Lord.
SONG: A GAELIC BLESSING
Artist: Cambridge Singers, City of London Sinfonia
Words/Music: Anon/John Rutter
CD Label: Collegium 801100
Deep peace of the running wave to you.
Deep peace of the flowing air to you.
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.
Deep peace of the shining stars to you.
Deep peace of the gentle night to you.
Moon and stars pour their healing light on you.
Deep peace of Christ,
of Christ the light of the world to you.
Deep peace of Christ to you.
