Hymn of the Day: Lord, Whose Love in Humble Service ELW 712
Text: Albert F. Bayly, 1901-1984
Tune: BEACH SPRING, The Sacred Harp, Philadelphia, 1844.
Albert F. Bayly wrote this text in response to a Hymn Society of America search for new hymn texts dealing with social welfare. It was chosen as the theme hymn for the Second National Conference on the Churches and Social Welfare held in Cleveland, Ohio, October 23-27, 1961. The Hymn Society published the text in Seven New Social Welfare Hymns (1961). The text begins with recognition of Christ's ultimate sacrifice on the cross and then points to the continuing needs of the homeless, the hungry, the prisoners, and the mourners. Bayly's words remind us of modern refugees, AIDS patients, and famine victims who are as close as our doorstep or who are brought to our attention via the news media. The final two stanzas encourage us to move from Sunday worship to weekday service; such integrity in the Christian life is truly a liturgy of sacrifice, pleasing to God.
Albert F. Bayly was born in Bexhill on Sea, Sussex, England. He received his education at London University (BA) and Mansfield College, Oxford. Bayly was a Congregationalist (later United Reformed Church) minister from the late 1920s until his death in 1984. His life and ministry spanned the Depression of the 1930s, the Second World War, and the years of reconstruction which followed. After retiring in 1971, he moved to Springfield, Chelmsford, and was active in the local United Reformed Church. He wrote several pageants on mission themes, and librettos for cantatas by W. L. Lloyd Webber.
Offertory: “Children of the Heavenly Father” Paul Sjolund (1935)
Caroline W. Sandell Berg (1832- 1903), is better known as Lina Sandell, the "Fanny Crosby of Sweden." "Lina" Wilhelmina Sandell Berg was the daughter of a Lutheran pastor; she wrote hymns partly to cope with the fact that she witnessed his tragic death by drowning. Many of her 650 hymns were used in the revival services of Carl O. Rosenius, and a number of them gained popularity particularly because of the musical settings written by gospel singer Oskar Ahnfelt. Jenny Lind, the famous Swedish soprano, underwrote the cost of publishing a collection of Ahnfelt's music, Andeliga Sänger (1850), which consisted mainly of Berg's hymn texts. This hymn promises amazing life and hope from a woman who lived in great pain and anguish. Much like Horatio Spafford’s timeless hymn, “When Peace like a River,” Lina Sandell-Berg’s “Children of the Heavenly Father” was written under the influence of incredible grace amidst heart-wrenching pain. The gorgeous tune is just as comforting as the lyrics, lifting the soul and calming the spirit. The tune for this hymn is called TRYGGARE KAN INGEN VARA. The exact composer is unknown, but the tune is probably a Swedish folk song— although variations on the tune are known to have been in Germany in the early 1800’s.
Paul Sjolund is a leading composer of American church and choral music. The range of his style includes a wide spectrum of majestic anthems, fanfares and festival hymns, poignant children's music, and exhilarating range of spirituals and folksongs.
Children of the heav'nly Father, safely in His bosom gather;
nestling bird nor star in heaven such a refuge e’er was given.
God His own doth tend and nourish; in His holy courts they flourish.
From all evil things He spares them; in His mighty arms He bears them.
Neither life nor death shall ever from the Lord His children sever;
unto them His grace He showeth, and their sorrows all He knoweth.
Tho' He giveth or He taketh, God His children ne’er forsaketh;
His the loving purpose solely to preserve them pure and holy.
Opening Voluntary: “Morecambe,” Pamela Decker (1955)
Frederick Atkinson (1841-1897) wrote the Victorian tune MORECAMBE, named after a town in England’s Midland district. His intent was to provide a musical setting for Henry Francis Lyte’s famous text, “Abide with me, fast falls the eventide”. Indeed the rhythm is identical between EVENTIDE, the tune associated with “Abide with me,” and MORECAMBE. There is, however, no doubt that MORECAMBE is well suited to the text “Spirit of God.” In the first stanza, a descending melody accompanies the words, “descend upon my heart.” Likewise an ascending melody in the third line allows the words “mighty as thou art” to blossom. This rising figure works amazingly well with the text of each stanza. The final three notes of the melody, all on the same pitch, do not end on the customary tonic, home tone or first degree of the scale, but on the third degree. By concluding the melody on the third degree of the scale, there is a floating quality to the ending of each stanza, reminiscent of the hovering of the descending Dove, one of the metaphors of the Spirit.
Pamela Decker is Professor of Organ/Music Theory at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona and she also serves as organist at Grace St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Tucson. She has won prizes in national and international competitions for organ and composition.
Closing Voluntary: KIRKEN DEN ER ET (Built on a Rock) Wilbur Held (1914-2015)
Composed for this text by Ludwig M. Lindeman (1812-1887), KIRKEN was published in Wilhelm A. Wexel's Christelige Psalmer (1840). A bar form (AAB) tune in the Dorian mode, it is a suitably rugged, folk-like tune for this text, with a satisfying climax in the final line.
KIRKEN (also called LINDEMAN) was the first hymn tune Lindeman wrote. Born into a family of musicians, Lindeman received his early organ training from his father, for whom he became a substitute organist at the age of twelve. Although he studied theology in Oslo (then called Christiana), after 1839 he turned to a career in music. He was the organist of the Church of the Savior in Oslo (1839-1887) and became a virtuoso performer. In 1871 he was invited to come to London to give inaugural recitals on the new organ in Albert Hall. Lindeman published hymn collections and organ works as well as the influential Koralbog (1877), which contained tunes (restored to rhythmic shape) for Landstad's hymnal of 1869. He was also an excellent teacher and founded an organ school (later the Oslo Conservatory) with his son in 1883. A scholarly collector of Norwegian folk music, Lindeman traveled the country collecting folk songs, which he published in a series of volumes (1853-1867) and which influenced the works of composer Edvard Grieg.
Wilbur Held was born in the little Chicago suburb of Des Plaines. Dr. Held’s mother was an accomplished violinist, and there was always music in his home and his church. But piano lessons were poorly practiced, and the decision to get serious about music didn’t happen until after graduation from high school when he enrolled at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, studying organ with Frank van Dusen and theory/composition with John Palmer. After getting serious he did pretty well, and midway in his studies he became Leo Sowerby’s assistant at St. James Church–an association that lasted seven years. He received a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the conservatory. In 1946 he joined the faculty at the Ohio State University, where he became Professor of Organ and Church Music and head of the keyboard department. He remained in this position for over 30 years, and for most of that time was also organist-choirmaster at Trinity Episcopal Church in Columbus, Ohio.