Music for February 11, 2018 + The Last Sunday after Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Christ, Upon the Mountain Stands – Robert W. Lehman (b. 1960) 
• Thanks be to God – Marty Haugen (b. 1950) 

Instrumental Music

• Chorale Prelude on Salzburg – Aaron David Miller (b. 1972) 
• Chorale Prelude on St. Elizabeth – Aaron David Miller 
• Toccata – Georgi Mushel (1909-1989) 

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of those marked “R” which are from Renew.)

• Hymn 135 - Songs of thankfulness and praise (SALZBURG) 
• Hymn R238 - He is exalted (HE IS EXALTED) 
• Hymn 529 - Fairest Lord Jesus (St. ELIZABETH) 
• Hymn 7 - Christ, whose glory fills the skies (RATISBON) 
• Hymn 490 -  I want to walk as a child of the light (HOUSTON) 
• Hymn 314 - Humbly I adore thee (ADORO DEVOTE) 
• Hymn R 247 - Shine, Jesus, shine (SHINE JESUS SHINE)

As part of our Black History Month commemoration, I wanted to include the anthem, Thanks Be To God. The composer, Marty Haugen, is not an African-American. He is not even Episcopalian. He's a 67-year-old white guy from Minnesota who was raised as a Lutheran and is now a member the United Church of Christ. Despite being a non-Catholic, his music has found great favor in the Catholic church as well as other liturgical churches looking for newer expressions through music.

What makes this anthem relevant to Black History Month is its inclusion of that great anthem of the Civil Rights movement, "We Shall Overcome." Haugen presents that inspiring song as counterpoint to his own melody. It is fitting, as you can see in the text of his anthem:

Thanks be to God when people care, thanks be for friends and loved ones,
Thanks be to God forever and ever 

Thanks be to God for food and home, thanks be for health and laughter,
Thanks be to God forever and ever 

Thanks be to God when hatred ends, thanks be for peace and safety.
Thanks be to God forever and ever 

Teach us the way of your peace, kindle your fire within us,
 Give us a vision of a world where people care for each other. 

 We shall overcome, We shall overcome,   Deep in my heart, I do believe that we shall overcome someday. 

Thanks Be To God was written as part of a larger work, Agapé , a reflection on the Eucharist, with ancient stories & contemporary heroes. This was part of the section on Dr. King.

An interesting development in the clouded history of "We Shall Overcome" was made known just last month, as a federal district court in New York on Jan. 26 oversaw a negotiated settlement that places “We Shall Overcome” in the public domain, while giving due credit to the woman who wrote the original version of the song some 70 years ago.

Louise Shropshire 1913-1993

Louise Shropshire was the director of music at Revelation Baptist Church in Cincinnati when her minister asked her family to host a young minister, Martin Luther King, who was in Cincinnati to speak at a banquet. While there, she shared with a him a hymn she had written in 1942 (and later copyrighted in 1954) called. "If My Jesus Wills".  This is the likely source from which folk singer Pete Seeger derived the civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome” when he first heard it sung by striking African-American tobacco workers in the late 1940s. Her original text goes:

I'll overcome,
I'll overcome,
I overcome someday
If my Jesus wills,
I do believe,
I'll overcome someday.