Hymn: God of Grace and God of Glory
This hymn was written by Baptist minister Harry Emerson
Fosdick for the opening of Riverside Church, New York City, in 1930. The hymn
was sung at the dedication services in February 1931 and was published the
following year. Paul Westermeyer writes, “Of this prayer for wisdom and courage
in the face of warring madness, pride, selfish gladness, and poverty of soul,
Fosdick said, ‘That was more than a hymn to me when we sang it that day—it was
a very urgent personal prayer. For with all my hopeful enthusiasm about the new
venture there was inevitably much humble and sometimes fearful apprehension.’”
Fosdick sought to make the church ecumenical, serving the needs of different
social classes and ethnic groups.
Hymn: Once In Royal David’s City
As per tradition at Cambridge’s Lessons and Carols, this
hymn begins the service. A solo soprano sings the first stanza, and the
congregation is invited to join at the second stanza. The hymn was written by
Cecil Alexander and included in her Hymns
for Little Children (1848), as an illustration of the Apostles’ Creed’s
statement on the birth of Jesus.
Hymn: Baptized in Water
Each stanza of this hymn begins with allusions to John 3:5
(Jesus’ baptism) and Ephesians 1:13 (marked with the seal of the Spirit), then
unpacks what God does in baptism—cleanses, makes us heir sof salvation,
promises, frees, forgives, etc. and leads us to give our thankful praise to
God. In The Presbyterian Hymnal
(1990), an alteration was made to the third stanza, where “born of one Father”
became “born of the Spirit.” Other hymnals have accepted this change since its
publication, although the author does not agree with the change: “By removing
father, (a) the Trinitarian significance is omitted and (b) ‘Spirit’ is repeated
unnecessarily.”
10:55 Anthem: I Was There to Hear Your Borning Cry
In 1985, John Ylvisaker was working for the Media Services
Center of the American Lutheran Church. While working on a baptism series
called “Reflections,” he began to write a song with a “dance-like beat and fast
rhythm” before he saw the video to which the music would be set. Once he saw
the film, he realized that “the lyrics were on target, but not the music. Thus
began the most arduous task any composer can face—changing a completed work
into something else. However, the original ‘false labor’ later gave way to the
‘birth’ of ‘Borning Cry’ which is now included in songbooks and hymnals around
the world.”
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