As Your Dear Friend Once Welcomed You - A New Hymn

As Shadyside Presbyterian Church's Director of Music Ministry, Mark A. Anderson, and I were planning worship during this Lenten Season, back on February 21, we were not finding a hymn that we were happy with, to conclude worship on Sunday April 7.  The Gospel lectionary reading for that morning was John 12:1-8, when Jesus shared a meal at Bethany with his treasured friends Martha, Lazarus, and Mary.  

I said to Mark, "Why don't we sing a hymn that you have written?"  His reply, "John, the other option for the first Sunday in April for a closing hymn would be for you to write a text and for me to write the tune. That might be too much, with everything else on your plate, but keep it in mind for future Sundays. It would be great fun to see what we could do."  

What a gracious and great idea!  

So, that is what we did.  I wrote the words; Mark wrote the music.  And the congregation sang our brand new hymn on Sunday, April 7th.  It was a joy to work on the hymn with Mark, and a joy to hear the congregation sing it.  Here's to more collaborations!

Go to this link to the Shadyside Presbyterian Church blog to read more and to listen to the hymn:

New Hymn

Please contact me regarding use in worship.

June Meeting of Central Florida Presbytery

Central Florida Presbytery held its June meeting yesterday, and among the events of the day, we said farewell to the Rev. Dr. Paige M. McRight who is retiring as our Executive Presbyter.  When the committee in charge of marking this occasion sent out an email asking for contributions to a Memory Book, I wrote a hymn in honor of Paige, which we sang as the closing hymn of the worship service.  The commissioners and guests (of which there were more than 300) did a wonderful job of singing it, to the tune KELVINGROVE. 

I have posted the bulletin  here and the words in more easily read form in the previous post.  The organist at Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church, Barbara, and the Director of Christian Education, Candy, did a great job of hunting down a copy of the tune so that the worshiping congregation would be ready and able to sing when the time came. 

You all know how much I love the good people at Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church.  One of my happiest duties as a Presbyterian pastor was to have served as the chairperson for the merger commission for Grace Covenant and Conway Presbyterian Churches.  They are among the shining lights of our Central Florida Presbyterian congregations, and it is always a joy to be with them.  Here are a few other photos I made while at the Presbytery meeting: