World AIDS Day

World AIDS Day may not (yet) be a liturgical observance in most places, but I believe
that it is marked in an increasing number of ways. It's not possible for any site to
consolidate and list them all, but there are different sites for different countries and
umbrella organizations.  Social media and the internet has made it much easier for 
such organizations to help people plan a local event in the last decade, and in many places 
churches have stepped up to do their part.

Thinking about the day this year I was reminded of a hymn connection from several years
ago.  In 1989 we were just beginning our hymnal project for Metropolitan Community
Church, and sketching out lists of the hymns we wanted to distribute over the next three
years. The worship leaders for the denomination's General Conference to be held that
summer had agreed to use these new resources, endorsing the inclusive and expansive 
language and theology of our texts.  We then received a special request from the Reverend
Elder Nancy Wilson for a hymn that she particularly wanted to be sung at the conference:
Charles Wesley's And are we yet alive.  This hymn was not on our lists at the time (and we
had no former Methodists on our committee who might have suggested it).  Left to our own
devices we might not have encountered it at all.

But in that time and place it expressed something important, the affirmation of a community
in crisis.  When we gathered for worship, either at an annual conference or even week-to-
week in local churches, we knew that we were in the midst of a great struggle -- fightings
without and fears within / Since we assembled last.  It was a significant question: And are
we yet alive, / And see each other's face?

And are we yet alive,
And see each other’s face?
Glory and thanks to Jesus give
For great redeeming grace!

Preserved by power divine
To full salvation here,
Again in Jesus’ praise we join
In Jesus' sight appear.

What troubles have we seen,
What mighty conflicts past,
Fightings without, and fears within,
Since we assembled last!

Yet out of all our God
Hath brought us by great love;
And all along our paths hath trod,
To guard our life above.

Then let us make our boast
Of God's redeeming power,
Which saves us to the uttermost,
Till we can sin no more.

Let us take up the cross
Till we the crown obtain,
And gladly reckon all things loss
So we may Jesus gain.

Charles Wesley, 1749; alt.

Tune: DENNIS (S.M.)

Hans Nageli, 19th cent.
arr. Lowell Mason, 1845

Over time it became more important for many of the the hymns we sang to include two
additional  themes: the life to come (seen here in the final stanza), and the memorialization
of those we loved and lost (see the hymn at the link below). Our churches sang about heaven
with an urgency that the rest of the world did not always comprehend.  We came to under-
stand why the hymnwriters of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries often concluded their
texts with a stanza about heaven, so that even on Christmas Day, when we sang Once in
royal David's city, the final stanza begins: 

Not in that poor, lowly stable

With the oxen standing by,

We shall see you, but in heaven,

Set at God's right hand on high.

In those earlier times, life expectancy was short (which also inspires Wesley's hymn).  The
hope of a life to come was an important comfort.  Toward the end of the twentieth century
we understood in a profound way the continuing need for that hope.

Five Years Ago:  World AIDS Day

Fightings Without and Fears Within

On this past weekend the annual Methodist hymn festival and choir competition in Fiji was to have taken place. Last month the gathering was cancelled by the military government of Fiji, but regional choral events were planned. During the last week, I had read that permission was then denied for those regional gatherings as well, but I wanted to wait to see what would happen, as there was speculation that the people would gather to sing in defiance of the ban.

A report has finally surfaced at Christianity Today. It appears that the government was successful in suppressing the choir gatherings. Several Methodist churches were "unavailable for comment." Reports of a new state-sponsored Methodist denomination in Fiji which will obviously be tightly controlled are troubling.

This Methodist hymn by Charles Wesley foresees the day when the Fiji Methodists are free to gather again in conference or in song. We should pray that that day will not be long in coming.

And are we yet alive,
And see each other’s face?
Glory and thanks to Jesus give
For great redeeming grace!

Preserved by power divine
To full salvation here,
Again in Jesus’ praise we join
In Jesus' sight appear.

What troubles have we seen,
What mighty conflicts past,
Fightings without, and fears within,
Since we assembled last!

Yet out of all our God
Hath brought us by great love;
And all along our paths hath trod,
To guard our life above.

Then let us make our boast
Of God's redeeming power,
Which saves us to the uttermost,
Till we can sin no more.

Let us take up the cross
Till we the crown obtain,
And gladly reckon all things loss
So we may Jesus gain.

Charles Wesley, 1749: alt.
Tune: DENNIS (S.M.)
Hans Nageli, 19th cent.
arr. Lowell Mason, 1845

It's unfortunate that Methodist churches worldwide couldn't have made this situation more widely known. Imagine if congregations all over the world had held their own hymn sings or other musical events on this past Saturday in solidarity with the Methodists of Fiji. Perhaps someone somewhere thought it would be counter-productive (or maybe just hard to organize on a Saturday in August), but in the tradition of social justice movements of the past it would have
told the military government that the world was watching.

Lowell Mason

Lowell Mason, sometimes called the "father of American church music" was born on this day in 1792. However, his first job was in retail and after that he worked in banking, intending to make it a career. Music was going to be a sideline for him; his first hymnal, containing his own tunes and arrangements, appeared anonymously in 1822. It was published by the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston and was extremely successful. He was eventually credited as the editor in later editions of the hymnal.

He took on a few church music director positions, while remaining a banker, but gradually music became more and more important. He is credited with introducing music into the public school curriculum in Boston (from where it spread throughout the country) and he later served as music superintendent of the Boston school district. He also was a co-founder of the Boston Academy of Music, and continued to write church music and hymn tunes. Some estimates of his composed and arranged tunes run as high as 1600. His hymnals and tune collections continued to appear; eventually there were more than 50, in addition to at least 11 secular collections and 17 children's columes and exercise books.

Later in life he was the music director at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York. He amassed a large collection of hymnals, which were willed to Yale University, where they are still maintained.

A number of his tunes have already come up here, but today I want to use one of the tunes that he arranged or harmonized.

Blest be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Jesus' love;
The fellowship of kindred minds
Is like to that above.

Before our Maker’s throne
We pour our ardent prayers;
Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one
Our comforts and our cares.

We share each other’s woes,
Each other's burdens bear;
And often for each other flows
The sympathizing tear.

When we are called to part,
It gives us inward pain;
But we shall still be joined in heart,
And hope to meet again.

This glorious hope revives
Our courage on the way;
While each in expectation lives,
And longs to see the day.

From sorrow, toil and pain,
And sin, we shall be free,
And perfect love and friendship reign
Through all eternity.

John Fawcett, 1772; alt.
Tune: DENNIS (S.M.)
Hans Nageli, 19th c.; arr. Lowell Mason, 1845

Mason's contribution to American music has not been universally applauded. He preferred contemporary European classical music and attempted to write in that style, though some feel he was not particularly good at it and his tunes are somewhat dull. That style also supplanted an American style that had flourished up until his time, and earlier composers such as William Billings and Daniel Read were no longer emulated.

The fifth verse of this hymn is sometimes omitted, but surely its message of hope is never out of place. In fact, the verse bridges the end of the third verse to the beginning of the fifth, telling of the sustaining hope for the day when "From sorrow, toil, and pain..." Why leave it out?

The text is by John Fawcett, whose birthday was also this week (January 6, 1739), and so pushed aside for the Epiphany. Fawcett was first a Methodist, then a Baptist minister in Yorkshire. In 1772 he accepted a position in a London church. He had preached his farewell sermon, the wagons were packed to transport the family to the city, but the "love and tears" of his congregation convinced Fawcett and his wife at the last moment to forego the tempting new position and remain where they were. It is believed that this hymn was written shortly thereafter.