UU Hymn Videos

Our hymn is “Filled with Loving Kindness”, #1031. Written by Rev. Ian Riddell, this hymn encourages us to feel peaceful and at ease. As such, it is part of a graceful, musical setting for a Buddhist meditation.

Kimberley Debus, author of the blog “Notes from the Far Fringe,” states: “I have used this in so many different settings and for so many topics. Between this and Sarah Dan’s Meditation on Breathing (#1009), we have the makings of a chant cycle to get us through all of these hard times – times when we need to be brought back to ourselves and reminded of our interconnectedness.”

Join Les Tacy, Music Director of Heritage Universalist Unitarian Church, as he plays and sings this hymn. Visit the YouTube video for Filled with Loving Kindness.

We feature guest musician Michael Tacy, Music Director at the Gathering at Northern Hills, and his harmonized version of Jim Scott’s hymn “Gather the Spirit”, #347. This is an immensely popular UU hymn and fits thematically with a variety of worship services. The video to this song includes the lyrics. So, as you listen and sing along, you can allow the precious lyrics to sink into your soul.

Jim Scott is a composer, guitarist, and singer, and has a website that features his many musical contributions and recordings: jimscottmusic.com. Enjoy the YouTube video Gather the Spirit.

Our hymn is Spirit of Life, #123, sung by Les Tacy, Music Director. “There are some who consider this to be THE UU Hymn”, says Kimberley Debus, author of the Blog farfinge.com. It is certainly very well-known and used regularly in our services at Heritage. On farfringe.com, Debus brings us back to a 2007 interview in the UU World with Carolyn McDade, author of this hymn. McDade reflects on the initiating event, which was a meeting for Central American solidarity:

“What she remembers most clearly was the feeling she had. ‘I felt like a piece of dried cardboard that has lain in the attic for years. Just open wide the door, and I’ll be dust.’ I was tired, not with my community but with the world.”

McDade then drove to her home in Newtonville. “I walked through my house in the dark, found my piano, and that was my prayer: May I not drop out. It was not written but prayed. I knew more than anything that I wanted to continue in faith with the movement.”

We will be forever grateful to Carolyn McDade’s prayer, and this hymn.

Enjoy the YouTube video Spirit of Life.

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 back yard, 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!”

YouTube link: I Know This Rose Will Open

Hymn #30, “Over My Head,” is an African American Spiritual dating from the 19th century.

According to Wikipedia: “While the authorship is unknown, Civil Rights leader Bernice Johnson Reagon changed the traditional words of the song to “Over my head/I see freedom in the air….” In 1995 the National Association for Music Education published a list of songs that “every American should know”, which included “Over My Head.”

Les Tacy, Heritage Church Music Director, sings this song.

Enjoy the YouTube video: Over My Head

Our hymn, “Turn the World Around”, #1074, is brought to us by Michael Tacy, Music Director at the Gathering at Northern Hills. “Turn the World Around” was popularized by Muppets creator Jim Henson. One of his guests, Harry Belafonte, introduced this song on a Muppet episode. According to author of the Blog “Notes from the Far Fringe”, Kimberley Debus, Belafonte said “I discovered that song in Africa, in Guinea. I went deep into the interior of the country, and in a little village, met a storyteller. That storyteller began to tell this story about the fire, the sun, the water, the Earth.” According to Debus, Belafonte states that the storyteller pointed out that the whole of these things, put together, turns the world around. All of us are here for a very, very, short time. In that time, there really isn’t any difference in any of us, if we take the time to understand each other.

YouTube link: Turn the World Around

We have a guest contributor for our Hymn: Michael Tacy, Music Director of The Gathering at Northern Hills UU Church. Our hymn is #318, “We Would Be One.” The lyrics were written by Unitarian minister Samuel Anthony Wright. The music is set to the Finlandia tune by Jean Sibelius.

Kimberley Debus, author of the Blog farfringe.com, suggests this hymn has “given us one of the most beautiful songs we have, about love, yes, but more. It not only talks of joining together in love, but it gives us the next ten words – namely ‘we pledge ourselves to greater service, with love and justice’”. She goes on to say that she “needs this aspiration of love and justice, of coming together to show the world what beloved community really looks like. And yes, if you’re just waking up to our nation’s long and ugly history of hate and violence, well, we’ll ignore the fact that you’re late to the party and just be glad you showed up at all.”

Considering the events in Washington D.C. last week, the concept of unity, of “being one,” really makes sense right now. Meditate or sing with Michael Tacy as he sings #318, “We Would Be One”.

YouTube link: We Would Be One

We have a guest contributor for our Hymn: Michael Tacy, Music Director of The Gathering at Northern Hills UU Church. Our hymn is #213, “There’s a Wideness in Your Mercy.” The lyrics, by Frederick William Faber, employ wonderful metaphors, such as “like the wideness of the sea,” to understand the expansiveness of God’s mercy.

Kimberley Debus, author of the Blog farfringe.com, suggests this hymn has “an incredibly important message: STOP LIMITING GOD.” She goes on to say that this hymn is helpful on “those days when it’s rainy and dark, when the to do list is so long you have several of them cross reference to keep track, when exhaustion and allergies and the unrelenting sadness and anger of the times beats down. Those days a hymn like this gets inside and pulls me out of the funk as I remember how wide, merciful, kind, and loving the Divine truly is.”

Meditate with Michael Tacy as he sings #213. YouTube link: There’s a Wideness in Your Mercy