Tom and I are always open to suggestions of music – instrumental or vocal, hymns or anthems – that could be incorporated into our services at St Margaret’s. Sometimes, the suggestions are not seasonally appropriate, so they have to wait until later in the year. Sometimes they aren’t suitable for our singers and instruments. Sometimes the suggestions simply aren’t theologically or liturgically sound, so we just can’t use them. Sometimes though, they’re just right.
So it was with this song. It was mentioned to be just before the 2022 summer break, so I had time to find the music, do the score analysis, and learn to love it. When Maggie’s Music Makers reconvened in September, I started teaching it to the group. Spot on for Pentecost, the lyrics are all about being set alight by the powerful inspiration of the Holy Spirit. I thought it would also fit nicely for “The Storm” in Creation tide:
1.Come set your rule and reign,
In our hearts again.
Increase in us, we pray.
Unveil why we’re made.
Come set our hearts ablaze with hope,
Like wildfire in our very souls;
Holy Spirit, come, invade us now.
We are your church;
We need your pow’r in us.
2.We seek your kingdom first.
We hunger and we thirst;
Refuse to waste our lives,
for you’re our joy and prize.
To see the captives’ hearts released;
The hurt, the sick, the poor at peace.
We lay down our lives for heaven’s cause
We are your church;
We pray, revive this earth.
Chorus:
Build your kingdom here.
Let the darkness fear.
Show your mighty hand,
Heal our streets and land.
Set your church on fire.
Win this nation back.
Change the atmosphere
Build your kingdom here – we pray!
3.Unleash your kingdom’s pow’r,
Reaching the near and far.
No force of hell can stop
Your beauty changing hearts.
You made us for much more than this;
Awake the kingdom seed in us.
Fill us with the strength and love of Christ.
We are your church;
We are the hope on earth.
Chorus
* * * Instrumental break * * *
Chorus
Although there are few music readers in the group, I usually give out sheet music so that the singers can follow whether the notes go up or down. In this case, I insisted the group learn the melody by rote before giving lyric sheets – an unpopular idea with the group, but I think it worked well!
This is a lively, uplifting song, which once learned, everyone enjoyed singing. If you look at the RCo’s official video, the group members are clearly having a good time performing it too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbdJXKqVgtg.
Thank you for the suggestion. This song is firmly in our repertoire.
Carol P
St Margaret's Church Prestwich 