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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Crappy Choruses & Horrible Hymns redux
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ChastMastr
Shipmate
# 716
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Newman's Own:
In one RC parish of which I knew (and, of course, never attended), the head of the religious education programme was constantly re-writing hymns - not only to make sure God was never referred to as He, but to eliminate all mention of sin, forgiveness, or anything else that would potentially wound the self esteem of the godly children.
Goodness, isn't that against the RC rules or such? Or is omission not the same as openly saying different things? ![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
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My essays on comics continuity: http://chastmastr.tumblr.com/tagged/continuity
Posts: 14068 | From: Clearwater, Florida | Registered: Jul 2001
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Newman's Own
Shipmate
# 420
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Posted
ChastMastr,
As far as I know, though it would be illicit to change the texts of the Eucharist itself, there are no such prohibitions on the verses of hymns. There are (as far as I know, still) particular texts of collects, entrance rites, and so forth, which are proper to services, but hymns used at entrance, offertory, communion, and the like allow for great variety.
Of course, things do get... creative at times. I well remember a house of nuns of which I knew, where the Sisters recited the "Office of Readings" daily. Each Sister had a turn at selecting the scripture and patristic readings to be used - there are ample selections from which to choose. One of them did not use readings at all, because "the Lord kept sending her prophecies."
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Cheers,
Elizabeth
“History as Revelation is seldom very revealing, and histories of holiness are full of holes.” - Dermot Quinn
Posts: 6740 | From: Library or pub | Registered: Jun 2001
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Ian Climacus
Liturgical Slattern
# 944
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Posted
How could we forget...
quote:
Rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham
Rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham
Rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham
Oh, rock my soul
So high (reach up you hip-young youth!) I can't get over it
So low (reach down LOW!) I can't get under it
So wide (spread out your hands) I can't get round it
Oh, rock my soul
Rock my soul
Rock my soul
Rock my soul
Oh, rock my soul
quote:
Originally posted by ChastMastr:
Wow! I figured the whole nihil obstat and imprimatur business would be absolute necessities for hymns as well...
Dare I confess ignorance and ask for a quick explanation - or link - to nihil obstat and imprimatur?
Admiral H.
Posts: 7800 | From: On the border | Registered: Jul 2001
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Newman's Own
Shipmate
# 420
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Posted
Dear Admiral,
In the Roman Church, both nihil obstat and imprimatur are certifications that a book or other written publication is free from errors in faith and morals - without implying that the diocese issuing the imprimatur supports the views. Respectively, the terms refer to certification by whomever is the diocesan censor of books, with the latter being the formal declaration by the bishop.
Until the new code of canon law was issued in 1983, imprimatur was a strict requirement - magazines, articles, etc., written by priests and religious all were submitted in order to be considered Catholic.
Of course, many an author used the imprimatur by taking its name in vain! For example, banking on the ignorance of the general population, a priest who wrote a devotional 'biography' of some obscure candidate for sainthood would answer critics with "the work has an imprimatur" - as if that meant the 'saint' was a shoo in for canonisation.
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Cheers,
Elizabeth
“History as Revelation is seldom very revealing, and histories of holiness are full of holes.” - Dermot Quinn
Posts: 6740 | From: Library or pub | Registered: Jun 2001
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Sheriff Pony
Shipmate
# 3911
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Posted
I'm not even going to check to see if this one has been mentioned, but every time this one shows up on Sunday morning, my worship time is RUINED! RUINED, I tell ya!
I think it's called "The Heart of Worship," . . . I think. Frankly, I shield my eyes when it comes up on the OHP, so I'm not sure.
As with most crappy choruses, it's not just the words, the tune, or the way certain lines are emphasized. It's the way they all combine.
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When the music fades
and all is stripped away
and I simply come,
longing just to bring
something that's of worth
that will bless Your heart.[1]
I'll bring You more than a song
for a song in itself
is not what You have required.[2]
You search much deeper within
through the way things appear[3]
You're looking into my heart.
I'm coming back to the heart of worship
And it's all about You.
It's all about You, Jesus.
I'm sorry Lord for the thing I've made it,[4]
when it's all about You,
it's all about You, Jesus.
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[1] First thing that gets me is the idea that I'm going to "bless Jesus' heart." It's theologically questionable, and it's overly precious. So I'm already cringing from the start.
[2] "For a song in itself is not what you have required"? Huh? The phrasing is awkward enough, but the song is already running in circles at this point. (Which, now that I think about it, may be fitting for some forms of worship.)
[3] I'm chewing aluminum foil when we hit "You search much deeper within through the way things appear." At this point I find myself thinking "What am I singing about anyway? 'Things'?" Some precise writing please!
[4] And then we hit "the thing I've made it." Once again, we're singing about a "thing" followed by the pronoun "it," which always has me searching for an antecedent. I'm lost and confused by this point, having no idea what the subject matter of this song is.
The song seems to be a worship song about singing worship songs, with Jesus as a passive receiver of "blessing." So, in a sense, it's not so much about praise to our God than it is about navel-gazing on the part of the singer. While I would agree that self-reflection is a necessary part of coming before God, in this case it doesn't quite work for me.
There's another verse, but I don't know it. At this point I've usually excused myself to visit the restroom.
(Sigh.) Thanks for letting me vent.
Posts: 382 | From: Space! | Registered: Jan 2003
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
Not to forget it seems to have been written by someone with the poetic soul of McGonagal (spelling?)
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Belacqua
Apprentice
# 3977
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Posted
And then of course, there's the contextually relevant - and awful - children's chorus I once heard -
Aband
Aband
Abandon ship
Jump into the lifeboat of the Lord
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Given our ancient predisposition for reducing every scrap of divine revelation that we come across into a piece of moral/spiritual technology that we can use to get on in the world, and eventually to get on without God, a daily return to a condition of not-knowing and non-achievement is required - Eugene Peterson
Posts: 2 | From: Glos, UK | Registered: Jan 2003
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Sean D
Cheery barman
# 2271
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Posted
I had a little search for this one but couldn't find it. It astonished me it hasn't come up before!
It's by Tim Hughes, called My Jesus My Lifeline, nicknamed by one of my more cynical friends, "My Jesus my girlfriend". Here, for your edification and delight, is the first verse.
quote:
My Jesus, my lifeline
I need you more than I've ever known
There's no-one quite like you
I'm crying out for your loving
How anyone can sing the final line without a trace of "huh?" or "WTF?!" is beyond me. Whilst being the gungho happy clappy I am I appreciate the sentiment, I mean, could it be phrased any more sexually? Almost as bad as
quote:
Take me just the way I am
Wake up people.
I hereby declare it obligatory for all Christian songwriters to get at least one normal person (pref non Christian) to read their songs to check for innuendo and sheer dumbness.
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postpostevangelical
http://www.stmellitus.org/
Posts: 2126 | From: North and South Kensington | Registered: Feb 2002
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ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sheriff Pony:
I think it's called "The Heart of Worship," . . . I think. Frankly, I shield my eyes when it comes up on the OHP, so I'm not sure.
To be fair, I think it was intended more as a personal song used in performance by the writer. A sort of apology for having inglicted so many glib choruses on the church
I don't think he ever meant it to be routinely used as a congregational hymn at the 10:30 Communion
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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Ken
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.
Posts: 39579 | From: London | Registered: Mar 2002
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Jack the Lass
Ship's airhead
# 3415
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Posted
The one that gets me every time, from "Over the Mountains and the Sea":
Oh I feel like dancing
It's foolishness I know
For when the world has seen the light
They will dance with joy like we're dancing no-o-ow...
Where I go this song is usually sung as a slow-ish worshipful thing rather than boppy and dancey, so whenever that bit gets sung I always have to do a double take - I *don't* feel like dancing (never do), and *nobody* is dancing now. Although whenever that last line is sung there's usually someone who'll start shuffling guiltily.
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"My body is a temple - it's big and doesn't move." (Jo Brand)
wiblog blipfoto blog
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welsh dragon
Shipmate
# 3249
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Posted
There is a great tradition of poetry describing our relationship with God in terms of a loving and potentially "romantic" relationship...(see Rowan Williams' address at Greenbelt last year, which is probably still available from the Greenbelt website, and puts all this very well...)
When the poetry is artistically good it all can seem very appropriate. It is when you have verse after verse of trite rubbish as above that the conceit runs into problems...
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Sheriff Pony
Shipmate
# 3911
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Jack the Lass:
The one that gets me every time, from "Over the Mountains and the Sea":
Oh I feel like dancing
It's foolishness I know
For when the world has seen the light
They will dance with joy like we're dancing no-o-ow...
Where I go this song is usually sung as a slow-ish worshipful thing rather than boppy and dancey, so whenever that bit gets sung I always have to do a double take - I *don't* feel like dancing (never do), and *nobody* is dancing now. Although whenever that last line is sung there's usually someone who'll start shuffling guiltily.
I know this one as "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever," and it tends to go on . . . forever. ("This is the song that never ends / It goes on and on my friends") And if it must be sung at all, the bridge portion that you quote above should be left out. In my staid, conservative Lutheran church such a sight would be . . . inconceivable!
Posts: 382 | From: Space! | Registered: Jan 2003
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the famous rachel
Shipmate
# 1258
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sheriff Pony:
I think it's called "The Heart of Worship," . . . I think. Frankly, I shield my eyes when it comes up on the OHP, so I'm not sure......
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When the music fades
and all is stripped away
and I simply come,
longing just to bring
something that's of worth
that will bless Your heart.[1]
I'll bring You more than a song
for a song in itself
is not what You have required.[2]
You search much deeper within
through the way things appear[3]
You're looking into my heart.
I'm coming back to the heart of worship
And it's all about You.
It's all about You, Jesus.
I'm sorry Lord for the thing I've made it,[4]
when it's all about You,
it's all about You, Jesus.
---------.
I quite agree with all your comments, Sheriff Pony. My added gripe is that the writer keeps saying that worship is all about God, and then starting talking about himself again. Now, I don't mind songs of the "This is where I'm at" variety, as long as they're not overused. However, saying that you've sinned by making worship all about yourself, while singing a song which is essentially all about yourself, is a bit much!
All the best,
Rachel.
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A shrivelled appendix to the body of Christ.
Posts: 912 | From: In the lab. | Registered: Aug 2001
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Moth
Shipmate
# 2589
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sheriff Pony:
I'm not even going to check to see if this one has been mentioned, but every time this one shows up on Sunday morning, my worship time is RUINED! RUINED, I tell ya!
I think it's called "The Heart of Worship," . . . I think. Frankly, I shield my eyes when it comes up on the OHP, so I'm not sure.
As with most crappy choruses, it's not just the words, the tune, or the way certain lines are emphasized. It's the way they all combine.
Amen! Amen! I rarely get up and leave a service, but it's either that or risk apoplexy when this ditty is sung. And for some insane reason, our choir seem to LIKE it. ![[Help]](graemlins/help.gif)
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"There are governments that burn books, and then there are those that sell the libraries and shut the universities to anyone who can't pay for a key." Laurie Penny.
Posts: 3446 | From: England | Registered: Apr 2002
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Newman's Own
Shipmate
# 420
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by simon 2:
In reference to the tree song, I read it as 'then I'll be a bloomin tree'. Bloomin as in 'aye that were a bloomin fine pint'.
Aye, and for sure if you'd been a Roman, you'd have known the glorious hymn, "Oh, Mary, Queen of Blooming May." (Mercifully, I remember only that first phrase.) Selah.
I am always much annoyed with misplaced modifiers. I can remember when one 'folk' hymn of the 1960s, entitled "Hear, O Lord" contained the verse: "Every night before I sleep, I pray my soul to take; Or else I pray that loneliness is gone when I awake." The author, I'm sure, did not intend to express that line's literal meaning - let me die tonight if I'll be lonely tomorrow!
I vaguely remember another hymn, though most of the verses escape me, in which one verse ended with the line, "and we knew He was God when He rose from the dead, and we know that His love will never end." Unfortunately (and please remember this was before the days of inclusive language), the next verse was,
How can I be a friend to my fellow man?
To the stranger I meet along the way?
I'll remind him that he came to earth to set us free,
And his friendship and love will show the way.
Quite frankly, were a stranger, upon meeting me, to inform me that I had come to earth to set us free, I would be unlikely to cultivate a friendship with said individual. My schedule is full enough.
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Cheers,
Elizabeth
“History as Revelation is seldom very revealing, and histories of holiness are full of holes.” - Dermot Quinn
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Sean D
Cheery barman
# 2271
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Jack the Lass:
The one that gets me every time, from "Over the Mountains and the Sea":
<snip>
Where I go this song is usually sung as a slow-ish worshipful thing rather than boppy and dancey, so whenever that bit gets sung I always have to do a double take - I *don't* feel like dancing (never do), and *nobody* is dancing now. Although whenever that last line is sung there's usually someone who'll start shuffling guiltily.
What actually makes it strangest is that the song is quite lively until you get to the bit about dancing, at which point dancing is just impossible!
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postpostevangelical
http://www.stmellitus.org/
Posts: 2126 | From: North and South Kensington | Registered: Feb 2002
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Robert Armin
All licens'd fool
# 182
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Posted
Add to that the fact that the words MAKE NO SENSE AT ALLL!!!!!!!! How can a river run OVER mountains and sea? The whole thing is bollocks, words and music ![[Mad]](angryfire.gif)
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Keeping fit was an obsession with Fr Moity .... He did chin ups in the vestry, calisthenics in the pulpit, and had developed a series of Tai-Chi exercises to correspond with ritual movements of the Mass. The Antipope Robert Rankin
Posts: 8927 | From: In the pack | Registered: May 2001
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Nicolemr
Shipmate
# 28
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Posted
theres a song that my minister likes. and oh! i can't tell him what mental image it conjures up for me... it goes:
lovely appear
over the mountains
the feet of those that preach
and bring good news (um, i have to admit i forget the next two words... its either "of love", "of god" or "to men")
anyway, all i can think of whenever i hear it is people walking on theor hands up the side of a hill so that as they crest it, the first thing that comes over the top isn't their heads, it's their feet.
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On pilgrimage in the endless realms of Cyberia, currently traveling by ship. Now with live journal!
Posts: 11803 | From: New York City "The City Carries On" | Registered: May 2001
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ej
Shipmate
# 2259
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Posted
There's a line in one of the Delirious tracks which people seem to have pinched for use in congregational worship (Don't ask me why as the chorus is pitched WAY too high for your normal punter)...
"Dancers who dance upon injustice"
What the?! For one, it's just plonked into the middle of the chorus with no particular context. Second, what exactly is that supposed to mean? Thirdly, this just sounds hideous coming from an upper middle class church of ppl who not only aren't dancing, but who you know are going to go home with little inclination to do anything about injustice in the world, but will instead drive their large family sedan to McDonalds before going home and changing into their Nikes... Go figure.
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For my next trick I shall turn this water into funk...
...a little breathing-space...
Posts: 426 | From: Melbourne, Australia | Registered: Jan 2002
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ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by nicolemrw:
lovely appear
over the mountains
the feet of those that preach
and bring good news
That's the Bible! It's from Isaiah 52!
If its what I think it is it is also probably the best-known Christian song in the English language from the past 40 years, "Our God Reigns" by Leonard Smith. Heck, even the Pope likes it. And it is in the top ten most-requested songs from CCL.
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Ken
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.
Posts: 39579 | From: London | Registered: Mar 2002
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Nicolemr
Shipmate
# 28
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Posted
well i'm sorry, it still makes me think of people walking on their hands. very silly.
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On pilgrimage in the endless realms of Cyberia, currently traveling by ship. Now with live journal!
Posts: 11803 | From: New York City "The City Carries On" | Registered: May 2001
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Sauerkraut
Shipmate
# 3112
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Posted
How come everytime I rant about "Shine, Jesus, Shine" on this board it always manages to pop up in the awful organ rendition? The group who wants to see that song buried within my church, however, is growing. I think the next time they even think about playing that song, there will be a mass revolt. I do not know why I haven't left yet.
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We want not an amalgam or compromise, but both things at the top of their energy; love and wrath both burning. Christianity got over the difficulty of combining furious opposites, by keeping them both, and keeping them both furious.--G.K. Chesterton
Posts: 196 | From: The middle of the US | Registered: Jul 2002
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welsh dragon
Shipmate
# 3249
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Posted
I went to a sevice at a certain large charismatic evangelical church in Oxford recently that has just completely renovated itself and acquired a lot of overhead projectors and videoscreens. At a cost i understand of several millions. It has built a large walk in bath thing for total body immersions and when I went along it had 7 dunkees lined up. (I was sitting next to a pair of very nice bemused parents)
And - to get to the point - it was so convenient having read this thread because although I don't come from that tradition, I was familiar with so many of the words from your posts! Oh, we danced upon injustice and sang of His love forever, let me tell you, with very great enthusiasm.
It did seem a shame really that with all that passion to be expended, there wasn't a vehicle of greater poetic and musical profundity and sensitivity to express it with...
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Lots of Yay
Cookies enabled
# 2790
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Posted
A source (obviously a reliable one, although I can't remember who it was) told me that churches in my diocese have been asked to cease doing Shine, Jesus Shine. Not sure if it's true or not but I haven't heard that song for a very long time... except for when I started a rendition of it round the fire at the youth camp with some kids from a S,JS-singing school and was almost killed by everyone else who was around in the 80s. One of the girls there told me that she knew seven verses for S,JS - surely she's wrong!
Now, on to today's crappy chorus nomination. It's in the "Jesus my boyfriend" genre and has a refrain of "Jesus I am so in love with you", at the end of each verse and the chorus and probably a few times in between. I'm not actually sure what it's called (probably something like "Jesus I am so in Love with you" I'm guessing). Sorry, not a fan. I believe it's from the people who brought us "Come, now is the time to worship".
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Current status: idle
Tales of Variable Yayness
Photos of stuff. Including Pooka!
Posts: 2006 | From: the plasticine room | Registered: May 2002
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Gill H
Shipmate
# 68
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Posted
It goes:
You are God in heaven
And here am I on earth
So I'll let my words be few
Jesus I am so in love with you
(There's a few more lyrics but I don't want to break any copyright laws.)
I have several problems with this song. Firstly, the first two lines are stating the bleedin' obvious. (Yes, I know it's a Bible verse. Doesn't mean it makes a good lyric.)
Secondly, letting my words be few isn't the same as letting my words be trite. Or soppy.
Thirdly, we sing it over several times, so we haven't exactly let our words be few, have we? Rather like the old self-defeating song
"So forget about yourself and concentrate on Him and worship Him" (sung 3 times).
Mind you, it has a really nice goosebump-inducing chord in the first line. I suspect that's why musicians use it. ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
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*sigh* We can’t all be Alan Cresswell.
- Lyda Rose
Posts: 9313 | From: London | Registered: May 2001
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Gill H
Shipmate
# 68
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Posted
Forgot to mention 'Here I am to worship', which is not a bad song apart from the line
'You're altogether lovely, altogether worthy, altogether wonderful to me'.
(a) it's soppy, particularly for a man to sing;
(b) it always reminds me of Terry Pratchett's multiple-personality character called Altogether Andrews. One of these days I'm going to catch myself singing 'You're Altogether Andrews', and with my luck I'll be miked up at the time.
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*sigh* We can’t all be Alan Cresswell.
- Lyda Rose
Posts: 9313 | From: London | Registered: May 2001
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Tom Day
Ship's revolutionary
# 3630
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Posted
Thank you for bringing that one up, i always cringe and burst out laughing when i sing that one at CU
'Altogether lovely' which means????
Just like saying, jesus is nice.
tom
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My allotment blog
Posts: 6473 | From: My Sofa | Registered: Dec 2002
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ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460
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Posted
What's wrong with soppy?
You'll be telling me I have to hand in my videotape of Sleepless in Seattle next.
Anyway "altogether lovely" means what it says. Completely worthy of love. If we cut out all the bible stuff & all the bleeding obvious what would be left?
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Ken
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.
Posts: 39579 | From: London | Registered: Mar 2002
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sharkshooter
Not your average shark
# 1589
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by ken:
...You'll be telling me I have to hand in my videotape of Sleepless in Seattle next.
...
Burn it.
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Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer. [Psalm 19:14]
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Gill H
Shipmate
# 68
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Posted
The comment above inspired me to write a short song which I believe the Rev Gerald Ambulance would be proud of:
Oh God, you're really nice
I love you so much, I'll sing it twice (x2)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
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*sigh* We can’t all be Alan Cresswell.
- Lyda Rose
Posts: 9313 | From: London | Registered: May 2001
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Newman's Own
Shipmate
# 420
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Posted
Why is it that I just know that Gill's contribution will be in some 'praise songs' collection by the end of the year?
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Cheers,
Elizabeth
“History as Revelation is seldom very revealing, and histories of holiness are full of holes.” - Dermot Quinn
Posts: 6740 | From: Library or pub | Registered: Jun 2001
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Mo's is
Shipmate
# 4010
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Posted
quote:
Rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham
Rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham
Rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham
Oh, rock my soul
So high (reach up you hip-young youth!) I can't get over it
So low (reach down LOW!) I can't get under it
So wide (spread out your hands) I can't get round it
Oh, rock my soul
Rock my soul
Rock my soul
Rock my soul
Oh, rock my soul
When we first sang this when I was quite young I thought the words were "rocker my soul in the bosom on Adrian" which was confusing as who was Adrian and why did he have bosoms?? people dont realise how much they can confuse kids...
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in a basket
Posts: 89 | From: London | Registered: Jan 2003
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MadKaren
Shipmate
# 1033
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Posted
Rock my soul in the bosom of abraham???
The ver sion I learnt as a kiddle was jesus' love is very wonderful, jesus' love is very wonderful...etc
And as for the one about dancers dancing on injustice (Did you hear the mountains tremble), did anybody else sing it an octave down so it sounded like a football chant?
And on that note, does anyone remember:
(To the Match of the Day tune)
Why don't you put your trust in Jesus
And ask Him to come in
He saw your need from up in heaven
And dies to forgive your sin
Why don't you put your trust in Jesus
and let Him take control
Cause He's the Son of God who loved you
and He died to save your soul
MadKaren
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Why do people who claim to love God embarrass him in public?
Posts: 866 | From: Jumping along the line between genius and insanity.... | Registered: Aug 2001
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Gill H
Shipmate
# 68
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Posted
I'd like to nominate 'Come, thou fount of every blessing', which I've only just discovered.
Largely for the lines:
"Praise the mount - I'm fixed upon it
Mount of thy redeeming love"
A good hymn for a jockey perhaps?
I'm amazed that my former church in Swansea, Mount Pleasant (commonly known as 'Mount') didn't have this one as a theme song!
(Then in the next verse I tried rhyming 'Ebenezer' with 'pleasure' and gave up.)
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*sigh* We can’t all be Alan Cresswell.
- Lyda Rose
Posts: 9313 | From: London | Registered: May 2001
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Amos
Shipmate
# 44
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Posted
Thank you for reminding me of an old favourite, Gill. It's sung much more in the States than over here, though the ECUSA hymnal has a bowdlerized version of the second verse. Together, verses 1 and 2 must demonstrate one of the heights of naive obscenity in the hymnal. No one in my family can say "Here I raise my Ebenezer" without the lot of us collapsing helplessly. Someone, please put in a link to the cyberhymnal.
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At the end of the day we face our Maker alongside Jesus--ken
Posts: 7667 | From: Summerisle | Registered: May 2001
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oswald
Apprentice
# 3910
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Posted
The hymn that makes me laugh is the one they sometimes sing in the respectable Anglican church where my son is a chorister. It isn't particularly funny, but it is written by Bernadette Twomey and the chorus is:
And they shall raise me up
And they shall raise me up
And they shall raise me up
On the last day
It should only ever be sung by Irish nuns (I'm RC so I can say this) in a windswept West Coast convent, not by an Anglican choir in a terribly beautiful and austere CofE church.
Posts: 10 | From: North of the Humber | Registered: Jan 2003
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oswald
Apprentice
# 3910
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Posted
I beg your pardon, that should have read:
For I will raise him up
For I will raise him up etc
It was Our Lord speaking, I forgot; the effect is the same though.
Posts: 10 | From: North of the Humber | Registered: Jan 2003
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welsh dragon
Shipmate
# 3249
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Posted
Come thou fount of every blessing here, though I haven't heard of an Ebenezer being used as a swear word or obscene term before, Amos.
In fact, I don't understand what the line in the hymn is supposed to mean.
(My Welsh grandfather's second name was Ebenezer, so namewise, perhaps I was lucky in being born a girl and getting called after my 2 grandmothers instead)
Posts: 5352 | From: ebay | Registered: Aug 2002
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Eanswyth
Ship's raven
# 3363
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by oswald:
I beg your pardon, that should have read:
For I will raise him up
For I will raise him up etc
It was Our Lord speaking, I forgot; the effect is the same though.
Ya know, I agree that this song is naff and gooey, but it makes me cry. If I read the words or hear others sing it, I find it completely gag worthy. But as soon as I join in the singing, I get a huge gut punch from the Holy Spirit. Go figger.
Posts: 1323 | From: San Diego | Registered: Sep 2002
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Frederick Buechner's Lovechild
Shipmate
# 4058
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Posted
I remember a chorus we sang ages ago in our church, which kind of summed up its ethos at the time - it was along the lines of:
Well, we don't know who we are
and we don't know where we're going
and we don't know where we've been
but won't you come with us anyway?
Hurrah for the metaphor of journey!
If this rings vague bells with anyone, I'd love to know exactly what the original was, because it clearly made a lasting impression on me.
While I'm at it, how about these for a couple of suggested titles for songs in the contemporary evangelical idiom
"Jesus, I want to stroke your hair" (A kind of romantic power-ballad)
"Our God is better than your God" (Triumphal, marching (or better still, goose-stepping) along.
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Go and preach the gospel - use words if you have to. (St Francis of Assisi)
Posts: 274 | From: Aberdeen | Registered: Feb 2003
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Raspberry Rabbit
Will preach for food
# 3080
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Posted
From the Statler Brothers album entitled simply 'The bible'
1.
Well Buddha was a man
and I'm sure that he meant well
but I pray for his disciples
'lest they end up in Hell.....
2.
Oh Eve!
She was only a rib
but look what she did
to Adam the father of man.....
Raspberry Rabbit
Montreal, QC
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...naked pirates not respecting boundaries...
(((BLOG)))
Posts: 2215 | From: In the middle of France | Registered: Jul 2002
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Gill H
Shipmate
# 68
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Posted
Check out Rev Gerald's Ministry Manual. The 'warfare' song is particularly moving.
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*sigh* We can’t all be Alan Cresswell.
- Lyda Rose
Posts: 9313 | From: London | Registered: May 2001
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Newman's Own
Shipmate
# 420
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Posted
"And I will raise him up"... Oh, yes. That horrid "I Am the Bread of Life."
One acquaintance of mine, who is a 'song leader' in an RC Church, was telling me that, horrible though that song is, her parish uses it with regularity because the congregation so loves it that it is one of few hymns for which they'll sing all 168 verses.
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Cheers,
Elizabeth
“History as Revelation is seldom very revealing, and histories of holiness are full of holes.” - Dermot Quinn
Posts: 6740 | From: Library or pub | Registered: Jun 2001
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welsh dragon
Shipmate
# 3249
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Posted
When I was part of a Catholic Charismatic prayer group, the guitarist told me that one song
"let us break bread together on our knees
let us break bread together on our knees..."
always made him think of someone smacking a baguette against a high kicking knee...
Posts: 5352 | From: ebay | Registered: Aug 2002
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Hope Seeker
Apprentice
# 4051
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Posted
Hi everyone...hope this is the right place to post this! (I'm a bulletin board neophyte)
This isn't a "horrible hymn" per se, but last Sunday in church I had to laugh at a line in our hymn book:
"For you who to Jesus for refuge have fled"
("yoo hoo to Jesus"???)
Also in the category of things misheard...
Last year I took a teenage friend to a Book of Common Prayer (Anglican Church of Canada) service. During the Eucharistic Prayer, she suddenly turned to me with this stunned look on her face. She had misheard a line of the prayer:
The actual line: "And we entirely desire thy fatherly goodness"
What she heard: "And we entirely desire thy chocolately goodness"
I don't think I'll be able to kneel through that prayer anymore without thinking of chocolately goodness!!!
Have a good day ![[Killing me]](graemlins/killingme.gif)
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God is good...all the time!
Posts: 2 | From: Canada | Registered: Feb 2003
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multipara
Shipmate
# 2918
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Posted
oswald,
That shocker to which you refer (i.e. "I am the Bread of Life") has had its authorship (at least here in Oz) ascribed to one Suzanne Toolan,SM(an Australian Marist Sister, to the uninitiated). It should most definitely NOT be sung by a passel of Irish nuns as theses ladies tend to have (collectively) the worst vibrato to be heard outside of the Bullamakanka Choral Society.
It would be worth paying money to have it permanently banned.
cheers,
m
Posts: 4985 | From: new south wales | Registered: Jun 2002
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Pewgilist
Shipmate
# 3445
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Posted
I remarkably popular tune (at least in Ontario in the eighties) went...
He's cooooming soooon,
He's cooooming soooon,
With joy we wait for His
Re-tur-ur-ning.
It maaaay be mooorn,
It may be night or noon,
I know, he's co-uh-mi-ing
Soooooon.
All this to the tune of -- pardon my Hawaiian -- "Aloha Hoy".
Who comes up with these things?
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--
Pewgilist
Hamilton, Ontario
Posts: 126 | From: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada | Registered: Oct 2002
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Newman's Own
Shipmate
# 420
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Hope Seeker:
What she heard: "And we entirely desire thy chocolately goodness"
One acquaintance of mine had told me that, when he was young, he'd heard "All Hail the Power of Jesus' name, let angels prostrate fall," and thought that a fallen prostate was an unfortunate condition which one would think a horrid thing to wish on an angel.
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Cheers,
Elizabeth
“History as Revelation is seldom very revealing, and histories of holiness are full of holes.” - Dermot Quinn
Posts: 6740 | From: Library or pub | Registered: Jun 2001
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Sine Nomine*
Ship's backstabbing bastard
# 3631
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Posted
He stands up and nervously clears his throat...
Hello, my name is Sine N., and...and...I LIKE "I am the bread of life"
He bursts into tears and runs from the room.
Posts: 10696 | Registered: Dec 2002
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