One of our most beautiful hymns is #18, “What Wondrous Love Is This.” This tune is based on a folk melody in The Southern Harmony, by William Walker, published in 1835. Michael Tacy, Music Director at The Gathering at Northern Hills, has put together a rendition that is peaceful and meditative. Please enjoy listening to this new version of a familiar hymn. If you want to sing along, the lyrics are on the video.

Enjoy the YouTube video, What Wondrous Love Is This

Our featured hymn is #163. Les Tacy, Music Director, gives an introduction to the hymn, then plays and sings it with Steph Tacy on viola in the background.

Enjoy the YouTube video, For the Earth Forever Turning.

Our featured hymn is #131, “Love Will Guide Us,” one of our favorites at Heritage.

This version features the quartet of, starting in the upper left corner and moving clockwise: Bob Booth, Jaime Castle, Joan Stoffregen, and Les Tacy. The video is produced by Steph Tacy. The tune is named Olympia, after Olympia Brown, the first woman to be fully ordained by a national denomination in America, the Universalist Church.

This hymn asks us to lead with love. That is, let love be our guide. When we do that, we have a greater impact on the world and those around us.

Enjoy the YouTube video, Love Will Guide Us.

Our UU Hymn is performed by Les and Steph Tacy.

Kimberley Debus, author of the blog “Farfringe.com,” communicated with the author of this hymn, Mary Grigolia, and was given this lovely origin of Hymn 396:

“I wrote this song when I was in seminary, taking a class on death and dying. Our assignment was to write our eulogy. I thought and thought of what to say, what not to say. And decided that as a songwriter, I needed to say it in music.

“After I decided I would write a song for my project/paper, I set the perfect ambiance: prepared a tray with journal and pen, tea and healthy snacks, went outside into the perfect afternoon, to sit under the Meyer lemon tree in my backyard, ready for and courting inspiration. I spent several hours journaling and grateful for the beauty of the afternoon. And no music came. None. Not a note. And I realized the hubris of the ego saying it would write the song. Scooping up everything, accepting the folly of my presumption, as I was balancing the tray, coming through the door (yes, a literally liminal experience), I realized I was singing something under my breath. And it was the whole round. Complete.

“What I take from the experience is the great responsiveness of the Universe/Spirit/Deep and Creative Self, when we allow ourselves to be present, to listen, to sing along, but not to assume we can control its scope or view.

“I Know This Rose is the answer to my invitation (to the deep Self). The way I hear/feel it, I am the rose; opening is in my nature. Even when it comes time to let go of this body practice, I know this rose will open.

“And although I may feel afraid of the changes, afraid of the unknown I can’t control, afraid of allowing the ego to follow the calling of something deeper, I know those fears will burn away (in the fire of transformation, this very physical practice of loving and living and letting go).

“And as my fear burns away, I know, I trust that the wings of my heart, my soul, will unfurl their (my) wings.

“Yes, I know this rose will open. I am the rose. We are all the rose. Opening.

“May we all trust in the opening!”

Enjoy the UU Hymn I Know This Rose Will Open.

Our hymn is “Blessed Spirit of My Life,” #86, by Shelley Jackson Denham. This is a mediative version composed by Michael Tacy, Music Director at the Gathering at Northern Hills. As you can see, he has renamed it “The Prayer.” The reason for this can be found on Kimberley Debus Blog, “Notes from the Far Fringe,” which states, “The incredible Shelley Denham wrote this as a prayer, and called the tune ‘Prayer.’ And wow, what a prayer. It is gentle to self even as it calls for strength. It is a quiet prayer of preparation, of focus and stillness.”

You can listen to this and use it as a means to mediate and center yourself. The rain in the background is fitting for the beginning of spring.

Experience the YouTube video, Blessed Spirit of My Life.

Our featured hymn is #134, Our World Is One World. Michael Tacy, Music Director at the Gathering at Northern Hills, has recorded this hymn with lyrics included. This hymn is a reminder that we are all connected, and optimism is important. But there is also a second message to this song – almost like a word of caution about how a person thinks and about how a person sees the world. For example, if a person seeks power and wealth at all costs, then everyone is affected. So, hopefully we take from this that we need to love, give, share, and build bridges. This hymn is written by Cecily Taylor.

Enjoy the YouTube video, Our World Is One World.

This featured hymn was written by Shelley Jackson Denham: #55, “Dark of Winter.” This is a very comforting hymn, and conducive to meditation and reflection.

Les Tacy, Music Director of Heritage UU Church, performs an instrumental version of this hymn. The lyrics are included below. Feel free to follow along and sing the lyrics as you hear the music played on the YouTube video, Dark of Winter.

Dark of Winter

Dark of winter, soft and still, your quiet calm surrounds me.
Let my thoughts go where they will; ease my mind profoundly.
And then my soul will sing a song, a blessed song of love eternal.
Gentle darkness, soft and still, bring your quiet to me.

Darkness, soothe my weary eyes, that I may see more clearly.
When my heart with sorrow cries, comfort and caress me.
And then my soul may hear a voice, a still, small voice of love eternal.
Darkness, when my fears arise, let your peace flow through me.

Heritage, and most other churches, were closed for in-person worship in December of 2020. As a result, musicians sought alternate means to provide music for congregants. Last year, Michael Tacy, Music Director at The Gathering at Northern Hills (GNH), produced a video, with the help of representatives of both GNH and Heritage UU Church. The video was of the carol “Silent Night,” #237 in our hymnal. It was also shared during Christmas Eve services for both Heritage and The Gathering.

For some background, we share excerpts from an article written by Susan Lewis in 2020,
“The Story Behind the Beloved Christmas Carol Silent Night.” For the complete article, click on this link: https://www.wrti.org/arts-desk/2020-12-19/the-story-behind-the-beloved-christmas-carol-silent-night

It was 202 years ago when “Silent Night” was first heard by Austrian villagers attending Christmas Eve mass in St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf. It’s a song about a calm and bright silent night, and the wonder of a tender and mild newborn child, words written in 1816 by a young priest in Austria, Joseph Mohr, not long after the Napoleonic wars had taken their toll.

It was Christmas Eve, 1818, when the now-famous carol was first performed as Stille Nacht Heilige Nacht. Joseph Mohr played the guitar and sang along with Franz Xaver Gruber, the choir director who had written the melody.

An organ builder and repair man working at the church took a copy of the six-verse song to his home village. There, it was picked up and spread by two families of traveling folk singers, who performed around northern Europe. In 1834, the Strasser family performed it for the King of Prussia. In 1839, the Rainer family of singers debuted the carol outside Trinity Church in New York City.

The composition evolved, and was translated into over 300 languages with many different arrangements for various voices and ensembles. It was sung in churches, in town squares, even on the battlefield during World War I, when, during a temporary truce on Christmas Eve, soldiers sang carols from home. “Silent Night,” by 1914 known around the world, was sung simultaneously in French, German and English.

Over the years, the carol’s mystique grew with its popularity. After the original manuscript was lost, for decades, some speculated that the music had been written by Haydn, Mozart or Beethoven. In 1994, an original manuscript was found in Mohr’s handwriting, with Gruber named as composer.

Listen to the YouTube video Silent Night.

12/8/2021.