Help then, O Christ, our unbelief; 
and may our faith abound
To call on you when you are near
and seek where you are found: 
- Henry Alford

The tune SHANTI has long been my favorite tune paired with Henry Alford's text (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbe3bpi_9Pg ). It allows for so much more introspection and reflection on these words. 

In our hymnal, it is paired with DUNLAP'S CREEK, a much livelier Appalachian
tune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEm3pTaZCZ4

In some ways, I think we could learn a lot more from this hymn by singing it with both tunes first being able to reflect on this text and its meaning through SHANTI and then to share it joyfully through DUNLAP's CREEK. Two tunes from two different time periods that each shed a different light on this text. 

Marshall

The church of Christ in every age,
Beset by change, but Spirit led,
Must claim and test its heritage
And keep on rising from the dead.
- Fred Pratt Green

In our consumer society, a lot of attention is paid to branding—to make sure a product, its advertising, etc. has a certain look so that people associate that look with the quality and name of the product. Because we are surrounded by this consumer mindset in our society, we tend to try to brand our version of what constitutes “church” by how the church looked in a certain age. Even some of most well-known and loved hymns have not always been the same. The language has changed, a new tune was written for a centuries-old text that had largely been forgotten, a new text has been paired with a tune that was once associated with another text. And often, that process spans not only centuries but the globe as well. For instance, the text above by Fred Pratt Green, an English chaplain and hymn writer, is paired with the tune WAREHAM (an 18th century tune) in most of the hymnals that have come out since around 1990, including our hymnal. However, the text was not written for that tune, but rather the English folk tune HERONGATE amongst those collected by the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams in the early 20th .

(A recording of that text set to HERONGATE can be found here. A recording of that text set to WAREHAM can be found here.)

What is it about WAREHAM that might speak more to this age of the church more than HERONGATE, and hence be the one most often used in recent hymnals? How does it fit the needs of congregations today? How might accompanying it with different instruments shed a light on this text needed in this age that accompanying it with a different instrument would not? While these questions might be specific to a hymn, they are the kinds of questions we need to wrestle with it comes to any tradition, event, etc that might be part of our branding of “church”. For instance, I have heard the phrase “It just isn’t Easter without brass.” But was there brass on that first Easter morning? Was God still at work even when there was no brass? Was it still Easter even if it didn’t come in the package of brass fanfare and spectacle that your branding of “Easter” has brought you to expect? Sometimes we can be too quick to only recognize our branding of “church” rather than see how God is at work in a different packaging of the church. Let’s be more ready to shed our branding of “church” in order that God’s church can continue to rise in the new packaging God is calling us into.  

This is why I would encourage our middle and high school students to sing in the choir or ring handbells alongside adults. You have as much to teach us adults about how you see the world and what kind of packing might be more needed in this age as the adults have to teach you about what that heritage we have as a church is and what we can learn from the ways in which that heritage has been packaged before. Please contact me if you are interested in choir or in ringing handbells.

On November 2nd at 11:30, we will be having an orientation to what we can envision with children’s music for children where I will demonstrate what I see as a way for our youngest members to grow in their faith, musical gifts, and understanding of how we continue to grow as we offer these gifts. I hope to see our families there and ready to see what God might have in store.
 
Marshall