Church Music

“In the Cross of Christ I Glory”, like Isaac Watts’s hymn, “When I survey the wondrous cross”, this one by John Bowring (1792-1872) is built on Galatians 6:14. It points to the ironies of hymnody. Though it was written by a Unitarian, this hymn glories in the cross of Christ,…...

Our Hymn of the Day, “When we are tested”, is a marvelous hymn text in the ELCA’s newest music resource, All Creation Sings. It is set to the well-known tune, SLANE. In English hymn books, where traditional folk tunes are used, the place of collection is sometimes attributed as the…...

Joseph Scriven (1819-1886) wrote “What a friend we have in Jesus” in 1855 in Canada, apparently for the comfort of his sick mother in Dublin, though it may also be related to the death of his second fiancée. It has been a source of comfort for many who have sung…...

Our opening hymn, “Let the Whole Creation Cry” is sung to the tune SALZBURG, named in the nineteenth century by the editors of Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861). The tune was likely written by Jakob Hintze (1622-1702). He was born near Berlin, but little is known about his early life…...

We are honored to have The Sarasota Brass Quintet here with us this morning at the 11am worship, playing in loving remembrance of Virginia Toulmin. Thank you to Gianluca Farina (principal trumpet), Aaron Romm (co-principal trumpet), Andrew Warfield (co-principal horn), Brad Williams (principal trombone), Aaron Tindall (principal tuba) for being…...

Rejoice, Rejoice, Believers — Laurentius Laurenti (1660-1722) wrote this hymn of rejoicing at the bridegroom’s coming to go with Matthew 25: 1-13, the parable of the wise and foolish bridesmaids, which was the gospel for the twenty-seventh Sunday after Trinity. It first appeared in German (“Ermuntert euch, ihr Frommen”) with ten…...

The Hymn Society and the Methodist Church searched for new hymns to "express the needs and aspirations of people in the churches and communities of rural America" for the Quadrennial National Methodist Town and Country Conference at Indiana University, July 22-25, 1955. Fourteen of the nearly three hundred submissions were printed…...

Originally, “For all thy saints” was written for All Saints’ Day and published in Horatio Nelson’s Hymns for Saints Days and Other Hymns (1864). The heading was “A Cloud of Witnesses,” a reference to Hebrews 12:1: “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside…...

No hymn is identified with the Protestant Reformation more than Martin Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress.” Luther (1483-1546) left a body of congregational songs that both defined the Lutheran confessional tradition and became truly ecumenical in influence. His thirty-seven hymns stand alongside his theological writings and his translation of the Bible…...

The text of our hymn of the day, “All My Hope on God Is Founded”, was written in 1680 by Joachim Neander (“Meine Hoffnung stehet feste”). Neander was the first important hymn-writer of the German Reformed Church and his texts were quickly received into Lutheran hymnbooks. Today’s hymn was later…...