Category: Music

We’re in the midst of busy times these days: leading music and worship for the Summer Ecumenical Institute in Saskatoon last week, Vacation Bible School this week with Crossroads and Bethany Newton United Churches, then off to Naramata Centre on Sunday for a week of drumming! Whew!

And in the midst of it all, Psalm 139 comes around in the lectionary again, a wonderful reminder of how blessed and loved we are. Here are a couple of songs to help you sing Psalm 139 this week:

• God’s Delight (pdf and mp3) – from our album, Embracing Change
• O God, you have searched me (pdf, bulletin graphic and midi)

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After living the cycle of scripture for a number of years, certain texts become intricately linked with memories. One such text appears again in the gospel lesson for this Sunday: Matthew 11:28-29. I wrote “Come to Me” based on this text after Cheryl’s Dad, Milt, died in 1994, but only recently created a piano/vocal score for the song. So here it is for you to sing on your own or in community, along with an mp3 recording from our first album, Reason for Being.

• Come to Me (pdf and mp3)

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Here’s a refrain for Psalm 13:

• “My Trust is In Your Mercy” (bulletin graphic and pdf)

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Trinity Sunday is one of those Sundays that make many clergy cringe: how do you explain the nature of the Trinity without putting everyone to sleep with arcane theological concepts? So (hopefully) rather than making you yawn , how about we simply offer you some songs for the scriptures of the day? Let’s sing!

• Genesis 1:1-2:4a
  • “Let There Be Light” (pdf, bulletin graphic and midi) – a simple round or chant
  • “In the Beginning” (pdf and midi) – a call-and-response song celebrating the act of creation, written for intergenerational worship
• Psalm 8: “O God, Our God, How Glorious” (pdf, bulletin graphic and mp3) – a psalm refrain or lively song of praise

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Don’t get me wrong, I don’t just mean for the Spirit to come on June 12 , but this is the day in which we celebrate Pentecost this year, the birthday of the church and the celebration of the Holy Spirit: “Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.” (Acts 2:3-4 NRSV).

And so let’s celebrate the gifts of the Spirit in abundance! Here’s a simple rhythmic chant to help you in invocation and praise. We usually start this one with lots of percussion (djembes, shakers, etc.), then introduce one voice at a time, from the bottom up:

• Veni, sancte Spiritus (Come, Holy Spirit) (pdf and bulletin graphic)

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