Appropriately enough for the summer months, a good deal of updating and refreshing has been taking place on StF+ over recent weeks. Often this has been in response to your queries and requests.
For those who noted that some of the links were broken in our Bible Month resource (Isaiah: God here, now and yet to come), these have been sorted. And this particular resource may be of special value as we prepare to join in with the Methodist Church 2022 Advent and Christmas campaign: There is Room. Full details of when resources will be available will be published on 1 September on the There is Room resources page.
Do keep your suggestions coming – we will always respond where we can in order to make Singing the Faith Plus as useful to you as possible for your worship planning and reflection.
The prophet Jeremiah’s warning against those who “dress the wound of My people with very little care” (Jeremiah 6) is a reminder, should we need it, that peace of any variety rarely comes easily.
We’re pleased to draw attention to a moving and challenging hymn by Mennonite writer Adam Tice, “Peace to you, my loved ones”, with its lovely and memorable tune by Sally Ann Morris. We link this to both Alan Gaunt’s We pray for peace (StF 719) and Fred Kaan’s Put peace into each other’s hands (StF 712).
Old hymns, different tunes
Put peace into each other’s hands is also worth re-visiting in order to discover a setting new to StF+. Clive Grey sent us his arrangement of the tune Elizabeth by R.H. Prichard (right). It has a gentle quality appropriate to Fred Kaan’s words. An enthusiast for Welsh hymn tunes, Clive Grey has also alerted us to an alternative setting of I heard the voice of Jesus say (StF 248).
Charles Wesley also comes in for some refreshment, this time with a new setting of his hymn Being of beings, God of love (StF 490). The Revd Leslie Newton’s tune Lily was introduced to us by Rachel Shackleton, who says: “How refreshing to have such a beautiful, contemporary and easy-to-pick-up-and-sing new tune for Charles’s wonderful original words – it just doesn’t happen that often.”
All creation sings
Harvest time is already upon us – in some areas of the country, it is well advanced. This year, Methodist charity All We Can is focussing on communities in Zimbabwe. You can pre-order All We Can’s harvest worship resources from their website.
Most harvest festivals will fall within the period known as Creation Time, which runs from 1 September to the feast of St Francis on 4 October. StF’s Creation Time page is a great place to start exploring this theme.
So is JPIT’s Season of Creation page, which this year invites us to focus on food: “Just desserts?” JPIT also offers “pick and mix resources” created jointly with Eco-Congregation Scotland.
As ever, if you have comments or suggestions about anything you read in this newsletter or on the website, do get in touch at stfplus@methodistchurch.org.uk.
