The Citizen, 1996-06-26, Page 24Come Worship with us Sunday ,9uly 30
Morning Worship Service - 10 a.m
Evening Worship Service - 7:30 p.m.
Rev. Adrian A. Van Geest
`Christ shall- have Dominion over rand
and sea, earth's remotest regions, shaft
9-(is empire be."
Arthur Sullivan
1871
BLYTH CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH
Hwy. 4, Blyth 523-9233
Wheelchair accessible
BRUSSELS UNITED CHURCH
ETHEL UNITED CHURCH
Rev. Cameron McMillan, Minister
Sunday Morning Services cancelled
Members and friends are invited to attend the
Sunday evening service celebrating Grey Township's
140th Anniversary at Grey Central School at 7:30 p.m.
The Church is wherever God's people are praising
Singing his goodness for joy on This day
MELVILLE
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
BRUSSELS
Rev. Cathrine Campbell
11:00 a.m. - Morning Service
- Sunday School
9:30 a.m. - Belgrave Service
We welcome you to come and worship with us.
887-9831 Wheelchair Accessible
Myth United Church
Come join the celebration!
July 14 - Guest Speaker Bob Heywood
of Exeter - 10 a.m. service
July 21 - Guest Speaker Muriel Coultes -
10 a.m. service
Rev. Stephen Huntley
523-4224
THE ANGLICAN CHURCH OF CANADA
you are welcome this Sunday
JUNE 30 - PENTECOST 5
ST. JOHN'S - HOLY EUCHARIST
TRINITY - MORNING PRAYER
Rev. Nancy Beale
Trinity, Blyth
St. John's, Brussels
9:30 a.m. 11:15 a.m.
4MII=1.11=1
HURON CHAPEL MISSIONARY
CHURCH
PASTOR JAMES H. CARNE AUBURN 526-7515
Sunday 10 a.m. - Family Bible Hour
11 a.m. - Morning Service
8 p.m. - Evening Service
Monday 7:30 p.m. - Addictions Support Group
Wednesday 7:30 p.m. - Prayer & Bible Study
Friday 7:30 p.m. - Youth
PAGE 24. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 1996
From the Minister's Study
Duff's pastor bids goodbye in final column
By Rev. Randy Banks
Walton-Bluevale Pastoral
Charge
0 sing to the Lord a new song
(Psalm 96.1)
Sing lustily and with a great
courage. (John Wesley)
Once again the United Church of
Canada is rushing in where Gabriel
and all God's other angels are not
foolhardy enough to even tread.
So, now what? Homosexual
orientation Part IX? Politically-
even-more-than-correct language?
The boycotting of yet another giant,
oppressive multinational
corporation?
No, something much more
ominously controversial than any
or all of these lumped together. The
latest minefield the United Church
has ventured into is the 'Hymnbook
Twilight Zone.'
Yes, the first edition of the long-
promised, burgundy-coloured
Voices United rolled off the presses
late last month and has, in fact, sold
out, mostly to curious individuals
like myself, rather than to entire
congregations.
The selling job will be an
arduous and thankless
congregation-by-congregation
campaign which is hardly
surprising given that we are still
debating the wisdom of retiring the
1930 blue hymnal in favor of the
much-maligned and little-cherished
1971 red hymnbook.
The hymns we Christians prefer
to try to wrap our vocal chords
around give rise to more passions
than government deficits, the GST,
and gun control legislation. A new
hymnbook is seldom an idea whose
time has come.
We really are not very interested
in heeding the psalmist's call to
'sing a new song to the Lord.' We
yearn for the 'old hymns' which is
surely one of the most ambiguous
concepts in all of Christendom.
What are the criteria for
establishing that a hymn is 'old' and
therefore acceptable?
Is the beloved What a Friend We
have in Jesus an 'old' hymn because
it was written in the mid 1800s. Or,
is A Might Fortress is Our God,
It was Pentecost 4 with the
seasonal colour - green at the
service at Blyth United Church this
past Sunday. Rev. Stephen Huntley
conducted the service. Barbara
Bosman was organist.
Greeting the worshippers were
Earl and Shirley Fyfe. Ushers were
Nathan and Devon Shannon and
Brent and Justin Sauve.
Rev. Huntley opened with call to
worship, Introit - "The Celebration
Song" and announcements, followed
by the opening hymn, In Christ
There Is No East or West.
For the children's time, Rev.
Huntley had a putting green and
golf club with him. He had each
child try to put the ball in the hole.
He told them that it takes practise
keeping your eyes on the ball. He
compared this to keeping an eye for
God and to practice caring for
people.
Les Rutledge spoke on the
Canadian Food Grains Bank for
which he and Fred Meier are the
church representatives. Other area
churches involved in this
worthwhile project arc the
Christian Reformed Church,
Church of God, Roman Catholfc
penned by Martin Luther in 16th
century Germany, more accurately
an 'old' hymn?
I regard Of the Father's Love
Begotten to be an 'old' hymn,
written as it was in A.D. 405, but
who knows of this venerable, time-
honoured plainsong?
A few examples of what we
classify as the 'old hymns' probably
include: What a Friend We Have in
Jesus, I Love To Tell the Story,
Shall We Gather at the River, We
Have an Anchor, Blessed
Assurance, Blest be the Tie that
Binds, Jesus Loves Me, I Need Thee
Every Hour, and Onward Christian
Soldiers.
What these all have in common,
with one exception, is their
inclusion in Voices United. The
glaring and controversial omission
is Sabine Baring-Gould's Onward
Christian Soldiers, with music by
Arthur Sullivan of Gilbert and
Sullivan fame. I find myself
wishing that the editors had warded
off the inevitable disgruntlement by
finding a place for this old
chestnut. It would have given us an
even number of 720 hymns in the
book. However, Onward has been
moved 'outward', for now at least.
Never fear that the hymn writer
will be spinning in his grave.
Baring-Gould discounted his own
hymn as insignificant and
unworthy. He was more interested
in editing Mother Goose nursery
rhymes and Conan Doyle's
Sherlock Holmes mysteries. The
familiar tune was composed
originally by Sullivan for a secular
theme.
When Bach was mass-producing
church cantatas for every Sunday
of the church year, when Isaac
Watts was churning out 8686 meter
hymns based on the psalms and
when Fanny J. Crosby was writing
her tear-jerking Christian poetry
and turning it over to composers for
musical settings, I would imagine
that there were many unimpressed
detractors around in each of these
different eras who denounced this
'new music' that they were
convinced would never catch on in
sacred and dignified context of
and Londesboro United. The two
plots of land are in the Londesboro
area and north of Blyth.
Following Mr. Rutledge's
informative message, Lenora
Davidson read the Old Testament
lesson from Genesis 18: 1-15 and
the New Testament lesson from
Romans 6: 16-11. Rev. Huntley
delivered the Gospel reading from
Matthew 10: 24-39.
The choir, under the direction of
Barbara Bosman, sang file's
Everything To Me, accompanied by
Mrs. Bosman at the piano.
Rev. Huntley continued on his
sermon services "The Four Loves"
with Eros being the topic.
public worship.
Our Hebrew ancestors would be
greatly puzzled. They did 'sing
lustily and with a great courage'
from their favourite hymnal. We
know it as the Book of Psalms.
There is a rich treasure of
Christian music being composed
today by the likes of Ron
Klusmeier, Jim Manly, Jim and
Jean Strathdec, Fred Pratt Green,
Brian Wren, the Taize commun;ty
and so on, that is certainly worthy
of our exploration.
Like it or not, language and
imagery do evolve. New Christian
music must be given its due
alongside the 'old hymns' that have
stood the test of time. The old and
new can co-exist.
I genuinely appreciate learning
new Christian music, but would
also acknowledge that the 'old
hymns' take me back to my
formative years in Sunday School
and can easily elicit a smile, a tear,
or a memory.
My initial impression is that
Voices United is a fine musical
resource that incorporates old and
new hymns of the faith. I, for one,
am more than ready to retire the
'old red hymnbook.' (RIP)
As this is my final contribution to
"From the Minister's Study", the
time has come to say "goodbye"
and also to express my appreciation
to the editorial, writing, and
support staff of The North Huron
Citizen for their commitment to
providing a forum for local clergy
to address the wider community. I
have lived in communities where
this privilege is either not accorded
at all or is granted only to a specific
clergyperson deemed to be
responsible enough to submit a
regular weekly column on time.
The Citizen has shown its ,respect
to all participating clergy by
trusting us to fulfill our
responsibility.
Thank you very much North
II uron Citizen. May your
newspaper continue to serve with
integrity the people of Blyth,
Brussels, and surrounding
communities for a long, long time
to come.
He said, Eros is the most mortal
of the four loves. Eros, without
morals, fidelity/chastity can
become a demon, very dangerdus.
Eros is not the sin, it is what it
leads people to do.
In closing, Rev. Huntley said,
The four loves, Eros, affection,
friendship, charity, Eros is that love
which most resembles the kind of
commitment or love people need
for one another and God.
Following the sermon, three new
members were welcomed to the
Blyth United Church. John and
Ruth Uyl were transferred from
Walton United. Christa Cameron
Continued on page 26
Blyth UC welcomes new members
You are Welcome at
the
BLYTH COMMUNITY CHURCH OF GOD
9:45 a.m. - Sunday School for Children and Adults
11:00 a.m. - Morning Worship
Bible Studies - Wednesday 10 a.m. & 7:30 p.m.
Phone 523-4590 McConnell St., Blyth