Trinity Makes A Joyful Noise, Praising the Lord!

While we are searching for a new choir director, we will try something new as a tool to make our singing worship more focused and joyful. Each week the bulletin will include a page that posts the hymns for Sunday and some background on each one. Also included will be the hymns chosen for the following Sunday along with a link to an online version of each hymn which you can listen to and become familiar with during the week.

SUNDAY, JULY 13 (from the Supplemental binder)

Processional: How Great Thou Art
Words: Carl Gustav Boberg (1859-1940), Music translated from Russian by Stuart K. Hine (1899-1989)

Read background about “How Great Thou Art” HERE.

There are many versions of “How Great Thou Art” to view and hear on YouTube. Try this traditional one sung by the choir and congregation in Winchester Cathedral or this one by Carrie Underwood or this one from 1977 featuring Elvis.

Offertory: Our God Is an Awesome God

Words and Music: Rich Mullins, 1988

Read interesting background information and see the lyrics, including the verses which we generally don’t sing, HERE

Listen and sing along in this YouTube video which includes the lyrics of “Our God Is an Awesome God.”  Click HERE.

Concluding: They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Love

Words and Music: Peter Scholtes, 1966
Scripture: John 13:34-35, 1 John 4:7-12, Romans 13:8, Galatians 5:13, Ephesians 4:2, Philippians 2:1-15
Read the history of “They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Love” on this webpage.
Words: John Bowring (1792-1872). Music: Rathbun, Ithamar Conkey (1815-1867)
Read background information HERE.
Listen to the hymn HERE.
Sing along with this YouTube video.


SUNDAY, JULY 20 (from the Hymnal)

Processional: #686 Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing  
Words: 1757, Robert Robinson (1735-1790). Music: Nettleton, John Wyeth (1770-1858)
Read background information in this Wikipedia article.
Video with lyrics sung by Chris Rice HERE.

Offertory: #441 In The Cross of Christ I Glory
Words: John Bowring (1792-1872). Music: Rathbun, Ithamar Conkey (1815-1867)
Read background information HERE.
Listen to the hymn HERE.

Communion: Take My Life and Let It Be
Words: 1874. Frances Ridley Havergal (1836-1879). Music: Henri Abraham Cesar Malan (1787-1865)
Read background of this hymn HERE.
Listen HERE.

Concluding: #488 Be Thou My Vision
Words: 10th or 11th century, Irish author unknown, translated from the Irish by Mary Elizabeth Byrne/Eleanor Hull, 1912. Music: Slane (trad. Irish), 1919.
Read background information in this Wikipedia article.
Listen to a beautiful rendition HERE.

Please Google or check YouTube for the following hymns to find many versions that will encourage you to make your own joyful noise each Sunday.

SUNDAY, JULY 27 (from the Hymnal)

Processional: #383  Fairest Lord Jesus      

Listen and sing along with THIS VIDEO.                                                    

Offertory #556  Rejoice Ye Pure in Heart

Men's choir, organ and sing-along lyrics HERE.                                      

Concluding #397 Now Thank We All Our God

How fabulous is THIS VIDEO? It's the concluding hymn at the Commonwealth Day service in Westminster Abbey on March 14, 2022. Flags, choristers, pomp, circumstance and a royal or two. Watch carefully as you sing along!


SUNDAY, AUGUST 3 (from the Supplemental Binder)
Processional: #43 Father I Adore You
Words and Music: Maranatha, Terrye Coelho Strom (1952-present), 1972.
“This simple hymn, focused on the Trinity, is often sung as a round, part of a genre of music called a “praise chorus.” It was composed by the author while she was driving a car with her sister. She was a singer with Maranatha! Music and member of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, CA where it was first performed and later recorded. “The word ‘Maranatha’ is an Aramaic expression meaning ‘Come, O Lord!’ or ‘Our Lord has come.’ The Christian music publisher Maranatha! Music…began as a ministry of Calvary Chapel…”
https://hymnary.org/text/father_i_adore_you
Sing along HERE.

Offertory: #1 Abba Father
Words: Steve Fry (1954-present), 1979. Music: Arranged by David Allen.
“Like Father I Adore You above, this hymn is part of the growth and popularity of the “praise music” movement that came out of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s to make church music more “accessible” often using a broad range of instrumentation beyond the traditional piano and organ. Steve Fry continues to write and publish music today.”
https://hymnary.org/tune/abba_father_fry
Sing along HERE.

Communion #130 Sweet Hour of Prayer
Words: William W. Walford (1772-1850). Music: Sweet Hour, William Batchelder Bradbury (1816-1868).First published in 1845 and then by WB Bradbury in his Bradbury’s Anthem Book, Boston (1860), this hymn focuses on private prayer, not public prayer or prayer in a church or group setting. The words are attributed to William W. Walford, “a blind preacher of Coleshill, Warwickshire, England, who wrote poems and committed them to memory.” (see website below) The online article goes into detail on how the history of this long popular hymn came to be.
https://www.hymnologyarchive.com/sweet-hour-of-prayer
Sing along HERE.

Concluding: #46 Glorify Thy Name
Words and Music: Donna Whobrey Adkins, (1940-present), 1976.
“First appearing in 1976 in a small pamphlet prepared for a minister’s conference, the hymn was copyrighted a year later by Marantha! Music and published in 1981 in the collection Praise 5. The author based the words on the John 12:28 and John17:1-5. She recalls “One morning while reading the seventeenth chapter of John, I began to meditate on the prayer of Jesus. I saw in a new way that Jesus was not only praying for His disciples, but for all who would follow Him in years to come. He was actually praying for me! I was impressed that Jesus was placing great emphasis on the unity in the Godhead. I also saw that it was very important to Jesus that the Father’s name be glorified, and that there seemed to be a correlation between glorifying the Father’s name and achieving unity. In that same moment I was inspired to sit at the piano and write ‘Glorify Thy Name.’ “https://hymnary.org/text/father_we_love_you_we_worship
Sing along HERE.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 10 (from the Hymnal)

Processional #207 Jesus Christ Is Risen Today
Listen and sing along HERE.

Communion #325 Let Us Break Bread Together on Our Knees
Listen and sing along HERE.

Concluding #441 In the Cross of Christ I Glory
Words: John Bowring (1792-1872). Music: Rathbun, Ithamar Conkey (1815-1867)
Read background information HERE.
Listen to the hymn HERE.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 17 (from the Supplemental Binder)

Two hymns only today

Processional #63  How Great Thou Art
Words: Carl Gustav Boberg (1859-1940), Music translated from Russian by Stuart K. Hine (1899-1989)
Read background about “How Great Thou Art” HERE.
There are many versions of “How Great Thou Art” to view and hear on YouTube. Try this traditional one sung by the choir and congregation in Winchester Cathedral or this one by Carrie Underwood or this one from 1977 featuring Elvis.

Concluding: They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Love

Words and Music: Peter Scholtes, 1966
Scripture: John 13:34-35, 1 John 4:7-12, Romans 13:8, Galatians 5:13, Ephesians 4:2, Philippians 2:1-15
Read the history of “They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Love” on this webpage.

Sing along with this YouTube video

SUNDAY, AUGUST 24 (from the Supplemental Binder)

Processional:   #6 As The Deer

Words & Music: Martin Nystrom (1956-present), 1981.

One of the most popular contemporary Christian hymns from the late 20th century, its composer, Martin Nystrom, is a music teacher from Seattle, a graduate of Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, OK and has served as a “musical evangelist” for Christ For the Nations in Dallas TX. He has produced five praise and worship albums for Hosanna! Music, Mobile, AL. This hymn based on Psalm 42:1 was written as “…he was simply playing chord progressions when he noticed a Bible on the music stand of the piano, open to Psalm 42. His eyes fell on the first verse of that chapter. After reading the verse he began to sing its message, right off the page. He wrote the first verse and the chorus of a song, practically straight through. The entire song was completed in a matter of minutes.” Intended as a simple prayer song, two additional verses based on Psalm 42 were added written by Lydia Pederson in the mid 1990s.

https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-as-the-deer

Sing and smile along HERE.

Gradual:        #99 Name Of All Majesty

Words: Timothy Dudley-Smith (1926-2024), 1980. Music: Michael Baughen, Majestas, 1973.

Englishman Dudley-Smith knew from an early age that he wanted to be a priest. Ordained in 1951, he held a number of church positions in his long career, ending with Bishop of Thetford, Norfolk and wrote over 200 hymns beginning in the 1960s. Another of his well-known hymns is Tell Out My Soul (#437 and #438 in our hymnal, set to two different tunes). Michael A. Baughen composed the music used for this hymn in 1973 and was also an Anglican priest and Bishop of Chester.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Dudley-Smith

https://www.hopepublishing.com/7/ 

Sing along HERE.

 Offertory:     #7 As We Kneel Before You, Father

Words & Music: Rev. Donald C. Latham (1933-2016), arranged by June Mohrmann, 1977.

When Fr Latham was Trinity’s Interim Priest between the end of Fr Leach’s tenure and beginning of Fr Kelly’s, he shared two hymns with the choir and congregation, this one and I Believe (#65 Supplemental). Both were written by him during the 1970s as contemporary Christian music flourished in many churches. He was very active in his retirement as Vicar of All Saints, Round Lake and as an interim priest in the Albany Diocese and he helped Trinity make a transition with ease and grace.

Communion: #24 Blessed Are You, Lord

                        #83 In Moments Like These

Concluding:  #116 Shine, Jesus Shine (Lord, The Light of Your Love)    

Words and Music: Graham Kendrick (1950-present), 1987. Make Way Music, Ltd, (admin. By Integrity’s Hosanna! Music) 

Another contemporary British hymn writer, Kendrick began writing songs in the 1970s and now has more than 30 albums and 400 songs which are sung around the world in many languages. “I had been thinking for some time about the holiness of God, and how that as a community of believers and as individuals, His desire is for us to live continually in his presence. My longing for revival in the churches and spiritual awakening in the nation was growing, but also a recognition that we cannot stand in God’s presence without ‘clean hands and a pure heart.’… Several months later I was asked to submit new songs for a conference song book, and as I reviewed this three-verse song, I realized that it needed a chorus… The line ‘Shine, Jesus, Shine’ came to mind, and within about half an hour I had finished the chorus…”

https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-shine-jesus-shine
Sing along HERE.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 31 (from the Hymnal)

Please Google or check YouTube for these hymns to find many versions that will encourage you to make your own joyful noise next Sunday.

Processional:   #383 Fairest Lord Jesus

Offertory:     #556 Rejoice Ye Pure In Heart                       

Communion: #693 Just As I Am    

Concluding:  #719 O Beautiful, For Spacious