Notes on the Notes – June 1, 2025

PRIDE Sunday

This week’s music:

“Love Astounding” 

“Love astounding, Love confounding limits fearful minds impose.
Love renewing, Love pursuing every heart until it knows
Love’s transforming, healing goodness, Love’s abiding gentle grace,
Love’s endurance, Love’s assurance, Love’s consoling strong embrace.

Love receiving, Love believing, we rejoice with thanks and song,
Faith regaining, hope proclaiming; Love has taught us, we belong
Safe within Love’s tender keeping, safe from fear’s persistent call.
Love defending, Love unending, Love of God enfolding all.”

Our opening hymn about the power of God’s love has words by Jeannette M. Lindhom.  Through the lyrics we are challenged to think about the mystery and wonder of God’s love for all of God’s people. Her poetry not only invites us to sing but to examine and expand the metaphors we use for God in our worship and devotion. The hymn comes from the collection, “Songs for the Holy Other,” which seeks to encourage us to claim otherness as holy and beloved of God. The tune, HOLY MANNA, was written by William Moore (1825).

“Spirit of Life” (VU #381)

“Spirit of Life, come unto me.
Sing in my heart all the stirrings of compassion.
Blow in the wind, rise in the sea; move in the hand, giving life the shape of justice.
Roots hold me close; wings set me free;
Spirit of Life, come to me, come to me.”

This sung prayer will be our response to the words of assurance.  It was written by Carolyn McDade in 1981 and arranged by Grace Lewis-McLaren and published in 1993.
Hear the Harmony Singers (2023) at: https://youtu.be/QbguL5r9_nI?list=PLcKv8KzQKS1iSYAuZRuBmzJeEJHHQVrYD

“I Am Loved” 

“I am loved, I am light. I am whole.
I am blessed. I am worthy of all.
There is love. There is light. There is hope to be found,
with Holy Love, Love Divine, Love within.

You are loved. You are light. You are whole.
You are blessed. You are worthy of all.
There is love. There is light. There is hope to be found
with Holy Love, Love Divine, Love within.” 

This simple chorus of affirmation was written by Mary-Ellen Kish in 2023.  Kish is a lifelong United Church member who writes songs grounded in faith values that speak to inclusion, justice, and living out loving, supportive relationships between people, within communities, and with creation. (Source: Gathering, Pentecost 1 2025 page 56, 58-59).

“May We Rise”

“May we rise with all Creation as the Spirit gives us strength.
May we heed the inner wisdom that God’s loving knows no length.
May we be a faith filled people, living out compassion’s way.
May we find the heart-felt courage to embrace the dawning day.

May we rise. Let the songs of Love be sung.
May we rise. Sisters, brothers we are one, we are one.

May we walk to meet the shadows of our woundedness and grief.
May we trust the Holy Spirit to bring healing and relief.
May we live with Love and justice, bring Your messages of Peace.
May we know the guiding power of Your gift of Grace released.

May we rise. Let the songs of Love be sung.
May we rise. Sisters, brothers we are one, we are one.

May we reach beyond the bound’ries of the walls that do divide.
May we feel the gift of Presence in Life’s circle with no sides.
May we listen for Your calling, hearts be open to Your Way.
May we live as one in Christ. As one people, God we pray.

May we rise. Let the songs of Love be sung.
May we rise. Sisters, brothers we are one, we are one.

“May We Rise” was one of the songs selected by a Canadian ecumenical committee and the World Council of Churches to be part of the worship material for 2015′s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. This is an action hymn.  Through the lyrics, we are asking to do something.  Each line starts with the words “May we…,” and the chorus asks that we rise in love and unity.  The song was written by Pat Mayberry and John Wesley Oldham (2012) and has been arranged for piano by David Kai.

Hear a recording by The Praise Team (2021):

“For all the Children”

“God, we gather as your people to raise our song above,
And we dare to claim the promise of Your love,
Though the day may not yet be here, we trust it soon will be,
When your children will be free.

O, may our hearts and minds be opened,
Fling the church doors open wide.
May there be room enough for everyone inside.
For in God there is a welcome, in God we all belong.
May that welcome be our song. 

Oh, we sing for all the children, that one day they be free;
And we sing for generations yet to be,
That they never have a reason to doubt that they are blest.
May they, in Your love, find rest.

O, may our hearts and minds be opened,
Fling the church doors open wide.
May there be room enough for everyone inside.
For in God there is a welcome, in God we all belong.
May that welcome be our song. 

Oh, we pray for all the young lives cut short by fear and shame
So afraid of who they are and whom they love.
May the message now be banished that Your love is for the few,
May their faith in You renew.

O, may our hearts and minds be opened,
Fling the church doors open wide.
May there be room enough for everyone inside.
For in God there is a welcome, in God we all belong.
May that welcome be our song. 

God, we’re working for the future when children far and wide
Can live their lives with dignity and pride.
As they grow in strength and stature, 
May they join us hand in hand,
As against all hate we stand.

O, may our hearts and minds be opened,
Fling the church doors open wide.
May there be room enough for everyone inside.
For in God there is a welcome, in God we all belong.
May that welcome be our song.”

This song of inclusion was written by David Lohman. It comes from the hymn collection “Songs for the Holy Other.”  The forward to this collection states:

“In our society and in our churches, we continue to build walls marking “out” and “in”. We continue to mark boundaries of “us” and “them”, of “normal” and “other”. Songs for the Holy Other aims to provide congregations working to dismantle these walls with a toolbox of hymns by and for those who identify as members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, transgender, nonbinary, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, aromantic, two-spirit, and other sexual/gender minority (LGBTQIA2S+) community and their allies. For many members of the LGBTQIA2S+ community, assimilation is not an option; we continue to be othered for our identities, relationship-styles, dis/abilities, race, economic status, and more. The title, Songs for the Holy Other, is a selfconscious claiming of otherness as holy and beloved of God. We who have been labeled as “wholly other” are claiming our holiness, and reclaiming our otherness as a prophetic witness to the church.”

“Your Work, O God, Needs Many Hands”  (VU#537/The Hymnary #290)

“Your work, O God, needs many hands to help you everywhere,
And some there are who cannot serve unless our gifts we share.

Because we love you and your work, our offering now we make:
Be pleased to use it as your own, we ask for Jesus’ sake.”

Our offering response was written by Calvin Weiss Laufer in 1927, set to music composed by Neil Dougall (1831).

“We are a Rainbow” (An Affirming Hymn)

“We’re the light of all the world, we are a city on a hill,
We’re a candle on a stand proclaiming light,
We not hide our lamp beneath a bushel anymore,
We will shine a ray of hope that’s burning bright.

We are a rainbow, sign of covenant and peace
For the flood of tears will finally cease to be,
Come shine your rainbow, splash your hues across the sky,
Paint the world in colours proud and bold and free.

We’re a coat of many colours, sewn from many different threads,
Covering all in warmth, in welcome and in grace,
God said, “Let there be light,” created every varied shade,
In the rainbow each of us can find a place.

We are a rainbow…

We are hope to still believe in tomorrow’s better day,
We are peace in a world that’s torn apart,
We are joy that will last in all the struggles that we face
We are love that blooms and grows in every hearts.

We are a rainbow…

When we face the storms of life, we will never be alone,
For our God will be with us on the way,
Hand in hand, side by side, we won’t be frightened anymore,
As the mourning night of tears breaks into day.

We are a rainbow, sign of covenant and peace
For the flood of tears will finally cease to be,
Come shine your rainbow, splash your hues across the sky,
Paint the world in colours proud and bold and free.

The words and music for this powerful song were written by David Kai in 2017.  Through the lyrics, Kai makes many Biblical references to both the Hebrew Scriptures and New Testament.  The words speak to acceptance and pride in being ones true self, without fear or discrimination.

Hear the song as recorded by The Praise Team (2021):

“When You Walk from Here” (VU #298)

“When you walk from here,
When you walk from here,
Walk with justice, walk with mercy,
And with God’s humble care.

When you go from here,
When you go from here,
Live with justice, love with mercy,
Humbly walk in God’s care.”

Our benediction response was written by Linnea Good of Vancouver.  It was published in Stickpeople (1992). The text is derived from Micah 6:8 and reminds us to walk with God as we head into a new week.  We see the continued evolution of the lyrics with the addition of a second set of words, added later.

Hear the song at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qvd2PUoEj9g