Each week, you may find information here about the music in the worship services at Trinity United Methodist Church in Duncanville, Texas. Some of this information is original; most of it is copied from other websites such as Wikipedia, GBOD, and hymnary.org. It is my hope that this information will enhance your understanding and enrich your worship experience.
He’s Everything - Dolly Parton
(c.2010, Velvet Apple Music)
Kyle Young, CEO of the Country Music hall of Fame, says this about Dolly Parton (1946-2026):
“Dolly Parton’s legacy is not celebrity, but humanity. She was a champion of equality and literacy. She was a picture of dignity, even when dressed outrageously. Anyone who seeks to be more like Dolly is on the right track, but they’ll never get to the finish line. She came from poverty to become the most important native of Tennessee. She shared her fortunes for the good of all of us, and shared her soul in every note she sang.”
Dolly Parton turned success as a country songwriter and singer into not only pop music stardom but also work as an actor, a successful businesswoman, and a philanthropist. With their strong feminine stances in the 1960s and 1970s, Parton and fellow pioneers Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette revolutionized the world of country music for women performers. Then Parton took her crusade a step further by crossing over to the pop world—landing on the cover of Rolling Stone, achieving pop hits, and starring in a series of Hollywood movies. Along the way, Parton lost much of her core country audience, to the point that she dissolved her fan club, which had been one of the staunchest in country music, in 1997. But her career—and her appeal to fans of hard country—was far from over. Beginning in 1999, she returned to the music of her youth and began rebuilding a tradition-minded fan base with a series of critically acclaimed bluegrass albums.
Dolly Rebecca Parton was born into a large family, the fourth of twelve children, on January 19, 1946, in Locust Ridge, Tennessee. She was born and raised in a two room log house with no electricity or running water. She came from deep in Appalachia, where music was an integral part of life for those who, like the Partons, struggled to make a hard living. Her mother was a singer who taught Dolly both church music and the Elizabethan ballads her ancestors brought to America. Dolly’s grandfather was a fiddling preacher who wrote “Singing His Praise,” which was recorded by Kitty Wells. Several of Dolly’s eleven siblings have been active in music, and some worked for a time in her family band. Parton was encouraged in her tentative attempts at music by her uncle Bill Owens, who bought her a guitar and, by the time Parton was ten years old, landed her a stint on a television variety show in the nearest big town, Knoxville. Nashville soon took note of Parton, and she made her first guest appearance on the Grand Ole Opry at age thirteen in 1959. In 1964 she packed her bags and left for Nashville immediately after graduating from high school. Her first day in town, she met her future husband, contractor Carl Dean, in a laundromat. And the rest is history.
In 2004, the Library of Congress presented Parton with the Living Legend Award for her contributions to the United States’ cultural landscape. In 2005, she received the National Medal of Arts, the highest award given to artists by the U.S. government; a year later, she received the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors. Parton joined the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001. The Recording Academy honored her with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011. In 2022, she was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Throughout her lifetime, she won thirteen ACMs, ten Grammys, and nine CMAs.
But it is her philanthropy and her stand on inclusion that has made her most loved. Her Imagination Library, which gives one free book a month to children from birth to age five, has distributed more than 332 million books and expanded from East Tennessee to towns across the United States and into Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland. She also supports the Dolly Parton Center for Women’s Services in Sevierville. Whitney Houston’s rendition of “I Will Always Love You” netted Parton nearly $10 million in royalties. She used the money to invest in a Black neighborhood in Nashville. Parton used her platform to support the Black Lives Matter movement during a painfully divisive time in the country after the death of George Floyd. In an interview, she stated: “I do understand people having to make themselves known and felt and seen. And of course Black Lives Matter. Do we think our little white asses are the only ones that matter? No, everybody matters,” Her words echoed across the internet and consequently led to her receiving a mural in Nashville. In 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic gripped the world, Parton encouraged people to get vaccinated and donated one million dollars to Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville, which helped develop the Moderna vaccine.
A portion of the money went towards funding an early stage-trial of the Moderna vaccine, which found it to offer nearly 95% protection against severe Covid-19. Reimagining her hit song, Jolene, Parton changed the lyrics to "vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, I'm begging of you, please don't hesitate”. She showed herself being injected, saying: "I'm old enough to get it and I'm smart enough to get it."
She was an unapologetic ally and someone who didn’t just support LGBTQ+ people, but celebrated us. She spoke openly about the importance of living your truth, long before it was common to do so. Over the decades, she continued to use her platform to push back against bigotry, including speaking out against harmful attacks against the queer community and the anti-trans bathroom law in North Carolina which HRC fought to block.
Dolly Parton's long-time chauffeur and assistant of over 30 years was Jason Pirro, a transgender man whom she fully supported, defended, and loved. In 1990, a tabloid tried to create a scandal by outing Pirro as a transgender man. Parton refused to fire him, stood by him completely, and made it clear she had known all about his transition and treated him with warmth and respect.
Dolly once entered a Dolly-look-alike drag contest at a gay bar in Los Angeles. Parton decided that she would over-exaggerate her most famous features for the contest. But she didn't tell anyone who she was. "All these beautiful drag queens had worked for weeks and months getting their clothes. So I just got in the line and I just walked across, and they just thought I was some little short gay guy," she told Nightline. "I got the least applause.” Parton lost the contest.
From as early as the 1980s, Parton publicly supported LGBTQ+ people despite the risk of backlash from her largely conservative country music audience amid the AIDS crisis and growing anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment. Her production company Sandollar Productions co-produced the film Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, a 1989 documentary about the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. The film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film, the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Documentary, the Interfilm Award at the 40th Berlin International Film Festival, and a Peabody Award.
Parton supported Marriage Equality. The song FAMILY from Dolly Parton's 1991 album EAGLE WHEN SHE FLIES includes this lyric: "Some are preachers / some are gay / some are addicts, drunks and strays / But not a one is turned away when it's family.” Parton weighed in on limiting trans citizens use of public bathroom in a 2016 interview with CNN: "I think everybody should be treated with respect. I don't judge people and I try not to get too caught up in the controversy of things. I hope that everybody gets a chance to be who and what they are. I just know, if I have to pee, I'm gon' pee, wherever it's got to be.” In 2023, Parton's home state of Tennessee introduced a bill to ban public drag performances, and her response was " I have some of everybody in my own immediate family and in my circle of employees. I just want everybody to be treated good. I've got transgender people. I've got gays. I've got lesbians." For the film TRANSAMERICA (2005) about a transgender woman traveling across the country with her son, Parton wrote the song TRAVELIN' TROUGH which brought Parton an Academy Award nomination, and she performed it at the 2006 Oscars ceremony.
"If you're the fine Christian you think you are, why are you judging people? That's God's job. We're not God. We're not judges. We're supposed to love one another.” — Dolly Parton
In 2012, Dolly Parton and Queen Latifah squared off in the musical comedy-drama film, Joyful Noise – which forced the two divas to form an unlikely partnership in order to save their small-town church gospel choir. The music-filled movie featured a mix of both gospel and pop songs – as well as three new songs by Dolly Parton. This includes “He’s Everything”. In her 2020 book, Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics, the country icon wrote about “He’s Everything” and how it moved so many people. She referred to the gospel ballad as “one of my better songs”. She went on recalling filming Joyful Noise, where she and Queen Latifah performed “He’s Everything” in a church along with the other casts and the many extras. While people in the movie were never told to react in any certain way, Parton was beyond amazed at how evident it was in their faces the moment the song touched their hearts. “That made me just want to ‘high-five’ God for giving me the inspiration to write something like that,” she said.
I see Him when the children are at play.
I hear Him when the church bells ring on wedding days.
I feel Him when the breezes blow, Adore Him where the flowers grow,
Revere Him when the oceans roll, He's everything. He's everything.
We're born, we live, we die and life goes on.
We love, we laugh, we cry, go forth, go on.
And we're a part of His creation, Every person, every nation.
He's in every situation, Everything, He's everything,
Let's lift Him up, Through everything, He's loving us.
Is it asking all that much That we should do the same?
So let us sing and raise our voice Let us make a joyful noise.
Let us praise His holy name, He's everything. He's everything.
In everything, He plays a part, In everything, He leaves His mark,
Restores our lives, our broken hearts, The God of hope and change.
So let us sing and raise our voice, Let us make a joyful noise.
Rejoice and praise His name, Rejoice, sing it again.
Rejoice, His joy remains. He's everything. He's everything.
Praise His name, His holy name. He's everything.
He's always lovin' us. We should show a little love in everything, everything.
He's the God of hope and change, He's the cure for hurt and pain.
You know He loves us all the same 'Cause He's everything, He's everything.
Everything, He plays a part, Heals and mends our broken hearts.
Restores us when we fall apart 'Cause He's everything, He's everything.
So lift Him up, rejoice, rejoice, Let us sing and raise our voice
And let us make a joyful noise, He is everything,
Sometimes a Light Surprises
William Cowper (1731-1800) is regarded as one of the best early Romantic poets. To biographers he is also known as "mad Cowper." His literary talents produced some of the finest English hymn texts, but his chronic depression accounts for the somber tone of many of those texts. Educated to become an attorney, Cowper was called to the bar in 1754 but never practiced law. In 1763 he had the opportunity to become a clerk for the House of Lords, but the dread of the required public examination triggered his tendency to depression, and he attempted suicide. His subsequent hospitalization and friendship with Morley and Mary Unwin provided emotional stability, but the periods of severe depression returned. His depression was deepened by a religious bent, which often stressed the wrath of God, and at times Cowper felt that God had predestined him to damnation. For the last two decades of his life Cowper lived in Olney, where John Newton, author of “Amazing Grace”, became his pastor. These two men forged a friendship that would lead to one of the most productive seasons of Cowper’s life. Newton asked Cowper to be a part of a hymn project for his local parish in Olney. Together they wrote 348 hymns over a span of about 10 years. A few of the more recognizable hymns that Cowper wrote include “There is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” “O for a Closer Walk with God,” “God Moves in a Mysterious Way,” and “Sometimes a Light Surprises.” Olney Hymns was published in 1779.
Art is often brought forth from hardship and struggle, turmoil and tears. There is something about a troubled soul that taps into both the reality of our fallen condition and the hope of something greater than ourselves. Cowper chose the text from Habakkuk 3 for the fourth and final verse of “Sometimes a Light Surprises”. Habakkuk 3 includes the language of lament and, according to one commentator, “provides one of the most moving statements of faith and trust found in Scripture.” Lament, rather than revealing a distance from God, reveals that an actual relationship is intact. When we feel close enough to God to talk to him honestly about our circumstances, intimacy is revealed. Moreover, it is often through intimate, honest lament that clarity is received. Though it begins with a description of tough circumstances, Cowper’s lyric ends with the assurance of God’s faithfulness: “yet God the same abideth, his praise shall tune my voice, for while in him confiding, I cannot but rejoice.”
Sometimes a light surprises Believers while they sing;
Is is the Lord who rises With healing in his wings;
When comforts are declining, He grants the soul again
A season of clear shining To cheer it after rain.
In holy contemplation, We sweetly then pursue
The theme of God's salvation, And find it ever new;
Set free from present sorrow, We cheerfully can say,
E'en let th'unknown to tomorrow Bring with it what it may.
It can bring with it nothing But he will bear us through;
Who gives the lilies clothing Will clothe his people, too;
Beneath the spreading heavens, No creature is not fed,
And he who feeds the ravens Will give his children bread.
The vine, nor fig tree neither, Their wonted fruit should bear,
Tho' all the fields should wither, Nor flocks, nor herds be there;
Yet God the same abiding, His praise shall tune my voice,
For while in him confiding, I cannot but rejoice.
Gloria Patri
Many congregations may take these words, sung weekly, for granted. Like many parts of liturgy, their roots extend to the deepest levels of our praise and prayer.
The text of the Gloria Patri falls into the broader category of doxology – in the Greek doxologia or “words of glory.” Doxology finds its roots in the Hebrew liturgy and the psalms as the kaddish. The kaddish is a doxology recited after the verses of a song. Its recitation signals the conclusion of one of the sections of the liturgy and has many different forms and purposes. In the Jewish context, a doxology blesses the One God and God’s everlasting nature. For example, Psalm 41:13 states: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting, and to everlasting. Amen and Amen” (KJV). This is a form of berakhah (blessing or benediction) that pervades Jewish liturgy and life. The Sh’ma is the most famous and prevalent statement in Reform Jewish liturgy that addresses these criteria:
Sh’ma Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Eḥad (שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָֽד):
“Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.” (Deuteronomy 6:4)
Baruch shem k’vod malchuto l’olam vaed (בָּרוּךְ שֵׁם כְּבוֹד מַלְכוּתוֹ לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד):
“Blessed is/be the name of the glory/honor of His kingdom forever and ever.”
The “Baruch” is a berakhah added in the rabbinic tradition. It is very similar to Psalm 72:19: “Blessed be His glorious name forever.”
Given this heritage, early Christians adapted the Jewish form to include the Triune God and the Trinity’s eternal nature – “world without end.” Scholars suggest that the opening trinitarian formula is taken from the Great Commission in Matthew: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (28:19). Any trinitarian affirmation at the conclusion of a prayer became known as a “doxology.”
The Lesser Doxology has for centuries been chanted in Latin at the conclusion of psalms and canticles, especially in the daily monastic prayers:
Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto,
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper,
et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
The Greater Doxology is the fourth-century hymn Gloria in excelsis Deo, the incipit (opening line) of which was drawn from the angel’s canticle, Luke 2:14. This non-biblical canticle was introduced during the fourth-century Christological controversies as a corrective to Arianism – a doctrine attributed to Arius (c. 256–336) claiming that Jesus was subordinate to God the Father. The Gloria became a stable part of the ordinary (fixed) sections of the Roman Catholic mass except during Advent and Lent when it is omitted.
Protestants often limit the doxology to a single stanza from morning and evening hymns composed by Anglican Bishop Thomas Ken (1637–1711) for a resident boys’ school. While the four lines of this well-known stanza are Trinitarian, Ken does not specifically mention the eternal nature of the Trinity. However, he references the cosmic perspective of our praise to God – taking place both on earth and in heaven:
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
Praise him, all creatures here below;
Praise him above, ye heav’nly host,
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
The Gloria Patri, also known in English as the Glory Be to the Father or, colloquially, the Glory Be, is also referred to as the Minor Doxology (Doxologia Minor) or Lesser Doxology, to distinguish it from the Greater Doxology, the Gloria in Excelsis Deo. The lesser doxology is of Syrian origin:
shubho labo w-labro wal-ruho qadisho
men 'olam w'adamo l'olam olmin, Amin.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
from everlasting and for ever and ever (literal translation).
The Greek wording is as follows:
Δόξα Πατρὶ καὶ Υἱῷ καὶ Ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι,
καὶ νῦν καὶ ἀεὶ καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμήν.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
Both now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
The Latin version differs from the Greek version because of the insertion of "sicut erat in principio", which is now taken to mean "as it (glory) was in the beginning", but which seems originally to have meant "as he (the Son) was in the beginning", and echo of the opening words of the Gospel according to John: "In the beginning was the Word". In 529, the Second Synod of Vasio (Vaison-la-Romaine) in Gaul said in its fifth canon that the second part of the doxology, with the words "sicut erat in principio", was used in Rome, the East, and Africa, and ordered that it be said likewise in Gaul. Writing in the 1909 Catholic Encyclopedia, Adrian Fortescue, while remarking that what the synod said of the East was false, took the synod's decree to mean that the form originally used in the West was the same as the Greek form. From about the 7th century, the present Roman Rite version became almost universal throughout the West.
Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto,
sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in sæcula sæculorum. Amen.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, and now, and forever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
The following traditional form is the most common in Anglican usage and in older Lutheran liturgical books:
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.
The translations of "semper" as "ever shall be", and "in saecula saeculorum" as "world without end" date at least from Thomas Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer (1552).
Congregations use several traditional musical settings. One is by Charles (Christoph) Meineke (1782–1850), a German-born organist who moved to England around 1810 and then to Baltimore in 1820. He served as organist of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church for several decades. Meineke authored Music for the Church . . . Composed for St. Paul’s Church, Baltimore (1844). His musical setting, included in this collection, is usually given the name MEINEKE.
On Eagle’s Wings - Laura Wasson
(c.1999, Augsburg Press)
Michael Joncas (b. 1951) was ordained in 1980 to the Roman Catholic priesthood, and has served since 1991 on the faculty of the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota. He has written three books, more than a hundred published articles, and has compiled more than 20 collections of liturgical music. Father Joncas was visiting a friend at the major seminary in Washington. One evening, Father Joncas’ friend got word that his father had suffered a fatal heart attack. Father Joncas wrote “On Eagle’s Wings” in the days that followed and it was was sung for the first time publicly at the friend’s father’s wake service. The song is based on Psalm 91 and Isaiah 4031:, its lyrics drawing from the Scripture’s descriptions of God’s protection and providence.
You who dwell in the shelter of the Lord
Who abide in His shadow for life
Say to the Lord, "My refuge, my rock in whom I trust!”
The snare of the fowler will never capture you
And famine will bring you no fear
Under His wings your refuge, His faithfulness your shield
You need not fear the terror of the night
Nor the arrow that flies by day
Though thousands fall about you, near you it shall not come
For to His angels He's given a command
To guard you in all of your ways
Upon their hands they will bear you up Lest you dash your foot against a stone
And He will raise you up on eagles' wings
Bear you on the breath of dawn, Make you to shine like the sun
And hold you in the palm of His hand,
Laura E. Wasson (b.1952) is a pianist, music educator, and composer known for her collections of sacred piano and choral arrangements. She has also authored instructional piano books, and teaches private piano and violin.
Be Still My Soul
(c.1961, Presbyterian Board)
Little is known about the author of this hymn. Katharina Amalia Dorothea von Schlegel was born in 1697. The date of her death is unknown. Some hymnologists suggest that she may have become a Lutheran nun. We know her as the author of "Stille, mein Wille; dein Jesus hilft siegen" published in a collection entitled Neue Sammlung geistlicher Lieder (A new collection of spiritual songs) in 1752. This text appears at the time of German pietism, similar in spirit in many regards to the Wesleyan revival in England of the same era. Philipp Jacob Spener (1635-1705) led the German pietistic movement. Though not a hymn writer himself, he inspired a revival in German hymnody characterized by faithfulness to Scripture, personal experience, and deep emotional expression. Katharina von Schlegel is thought to be the leading female hymn writer of this period.
The hymn comes to us via a translation by Jane L. Borthwick (1813-1897), a member of the Free Church of Scotland. Borthwick was second only to Catherine Winkworth (1827-1878) in bringing the riches of German hymn heritage to the English language. Her translation included five of the original six stanzas, appearing in Hymns from the Land of Luther, second series (1855). The melody comes from the symphonic tone poem “Finlandia, Op. 26”, by Jean Sibelius (1865-1957). David Evans (1874-1948), a Welsh organist-choirmaster, matched the translation with the tune for the Revised Church Hymnary (1927). It was brought to the United States when it was used in the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. for The Hymnal (1933).
Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side.
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change, He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.
Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake
To guide the future, as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know
His voice Who ruled them while He dwelt below.
Be still, my soul: when dearest friends depart,
And all is darkened in the vale of tears,
Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart,
Who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears.
Be still, my soul: thy Jesus can repay
From His own fullness all He takes away.
Be still, my soul: the hour is hastening on
When we shall be forever with the Lord.
When disappointment, grief and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past
All safe and blessèd we shall meet at last.
Be still, my soul: begin the song of praise
On earth, believing, to Thy Lord on high;
Acknowledge Him in all thy words and ways,
So shall He view thee with a well pleased eye.
Be still, my soul: the Sun of life divine
Through passing clouds shall but more brightly shine.
Surely the Presence of the Lord is in this Place
(c.1977, Lanny Wolfe Music)
Lanny Wolfe (born 1942) is a Christian songwriter who has won numerous awards. Wolfe served for a number of years as the Dean of the School of Music at Jackson Bible School, Jackson College of Ministries, but his most significant influence has been introducing black Gospel music to Pentecostal churches.
"Surely the Presence of the Lord Is in This Place" is based on Jesus promise, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in their midst" (Matthew 18:20). It emphasizes the senses––feeling, hearing, touching, and seeing. We can feel the presence of the Lord––and hear the brush of the angel's wings––and see glory on each face. Wolfe was inspired to write this song in 1977 when a friend invited The Lanny Wolfe Trio to sing at a dedication service for a new building. "Surely the Presence" is the song that the Trio sang for that occasion.
Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place;
I can feel his mighty power and his grace.
I can hear the brush of angels’ wings, I see glory on each face;
Sure the presence of the Lord is in this place.
Great is Thy Faithfulness
(c. 1951, Hope Publishing)
A native of the small Kentucky town of Franklin, Thomas Obediah Chisholm (1866-1960) was born in a log cabin. He lacked formal education. Nevertheless, he became a teacher at age sixteen and the associate editor of his hometown weekly newspaper, the “Franklin Advocate”, at age twenty-one. Though he was ordained a Methodist minister in 1903, he served only a single, brief appointment at Scottsville, Kentucky, due to ill health. He wrote more than 1200 poems, 800 of which were published. They often appeared in religious periodicals such as the “Sunday School Times”, “Moody Monthly”, and “Alliance Weekly”. Many of these were set to music.
Chisholm had sent a number of his poems to the Rev. William H. Runyan (1870-1957), a musician with the Moody Bible Institute and one of the editors of Hope Publishing Company in Chicago.
The tune FAITHFULNESS was written in Baldwin, Kansas, in 1923, and was first published in my private song pamphlets." A phrase in Lamentations 3:22-23 provides a basis for the refrain: "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."
Twenty years later Runyan wrote:
Mr. Chisholm and I were devoted co-workers, and I wrote harmonies to some 20 or 25 of his poems. This particular poem held such
an appeal that I prayed most earnestly that my tune might carryover its message in a worthy way, and the subsequent history of its use indicates that God answers prayer.
Showing early musical promise, Runyan was a substitute church organist by the age of twelve. He became a Methodist minister in 1891 and served several churches in Kansas but turned to evangelism in 1903; he worked for the Central Methodist Conference for the next twenty years. Following that service, Runyan became pastor at the Federated Church at John Brown University, Sulphur Springs [sic: Siloam Springs], Arkansas. Editor of Christian Workers Magazine, he also served the Moody Bible Institute and was an editor for Hope Publishing Company until his retirement in 1948. Runyan wrote a number of hymn texts, gospel songs, and hymn tunes. "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" became an unofficial school hymn at Moody Bible Institute.
George Beverly Shea (1909-2013), the famous Canadian-born singer of the Billy Graham Crusades, introduced this hymn to those attending the evangelistic meetings in Great Britain in 1954. It immediately became a favorite. This hymn appeared in many evangelical hymnals and song collections but was not chosen for an official Methodist hymnal until The United Methodist Hymnal (1989), even though the author was a Methodist. It was a very popular hymn of the former Evangelical United Brethren Church and had been included in their hymnals.
According to Carlton Young, "Great is thy faithfulness" was second only to "In the garden" as the most requested hymn for inclusion in The United Methodist Hymnal. A survey conducted in 2000 by Dean McIntyre, Director of Music Resources, General Board of Discipleship, revealed that "Great is thy faithfulness" remains one of the favorite hymns among United Methodists.
Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father.
There is no shadow of turning with thee.
Thou changest not, thy compassions, they fail not.
As thou hast been thou forever wilt be.
Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,
sun, moon, and stars in their courses above,
join with all nature in manifold witness
to thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love. [Refrain]
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide,
strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow;
blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside! [Refrain]
Great is thy faithfulness! Great is thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed thy hand hath provided.
Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!
A Closing Prayer - Don Besig
(c.1978, Harold Flammer, Inc.)
Don Besig was a public school music teacher for over thirty years in western New York. He taught at all levels and since his retirement has continued to serve as a guest conductor, clinician and adjudicator. Recognizing a need for choral music written especially for student singers and volunteer church choirs, he began composing for his own choral groups in 1960. He is also the recipient of several ASCAP Plus Awards Don is a graduate of Ithaca College and a member of Phi Mu Alpha and ASCAP. He and Nancy Price collaborate to write music and lyrics.
The time has come, O Lord, for us to leave this place.
Guide us and protect us and lead us in thy grace.
Wherever life may take us as we go our separate ways,
Help us share with others the things we've shared today.
Praise His Greatness - Mark Hayes
(c.1988, GlorySound)
"Great Is the Lord" was written in 1982 by Michael W. Smith and his wife, Debbie, during a quiet evening candlelit Bible reading session. The couple read Psalm 145:3, which says, "Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise". Debbie wrote the words while Michael played the music on the piano. The lyrics and melody came together at the same time. Michael later shared in an interview that a strong, good feeling of God's presence came over them. It felt as if the song was already written for them. Michael noted that the song starts by telling others about God, but by the end, it turns into a direct prayer of praise to Him
Great is the Lord, He is holy and just,
By His power we trust In His love.
Great is the Lord, He is faithful and true,
By His mercy He proves He is love.
Great is the Lord And worthy of glory.
Great is the Lord And worthy of praise.
Great is the Lord. Now lift up your voice,
Great is the Lord.
Great are you Lord And worthy of glory,
Great are you Lord And worthy of praise.
Great are you Lord. I lift up my voice.
Great are you Lord.
Mark Hayes is an award-winning concert pianist, composer, arranger and conductor. His personal catalog, totaling over 1,000 published works, includes work for solo voice, solo piano, multiple pianos, orchestra, jazz combo, small instrumental ensembles, and choruses of all kinds. Mark received a Bachelor of Music degree summa cum laude in Piano Performance from Baylor University in 1975. He has conducted the SWACDA and MCDA Community and Church Honor Choir, and served as guest conductor at Carnegie Hall, featuring his Te Deum and Magnificat. In 2010, Baylor University Center for Christian Music Studies awarded Mark the Award for Exemplary Leadership in Christian Music. Mark arranged and orchestrated the music for Civil War Voices, which won six awards including "Best Musical" in the 2010 Midtown International Theatre Festival in New York. He conducted the world premiere of his work for chorus, orchestra and narrator, The American Spirit, at Lincoln Center in May 2011 and the world premiere of his Requiem in Lincoln Center in May 2013. Whether concertizing on the other side of the globe or composing at his home in Kansas City, Missouri, Mark is blessed to live out his mission "to create beautiful music for the world".
Trinity United Methodist Church, Duncanville, Texas
No comments:
Post a Comment