Hymn of the Day: “Will You Come and Follow Me?” ELW 798
Text: John Lamberton Bell (1949)
Tune: KELVINGROVE, traditional Scottish melody

Though he is not certain of it, John Bell is "fairly confident" that this text was written for the sending out of one our youth volunteers. This was a scheme sponsored by the lona Community whereby young people gave a year or two to live in impoverished parts of Scotland, on the dole, and work out their discipleship in hard places. When they finished, my colleague and I would often write a song for their farewell ceremony always held in the house where they had been working. The words of this song therefore reflect the experience of the volunteer concerned. But we only wrote it for one-off use. It probably goes back to around 1986-87. Bell then adds, "If I had kept a record of people who have spoken of how a particular line in this affected their life, I could have published a book of very moving testimonies by now, but I'm glad I didn't."

John Lamberton Bell is a Scottish hymn-writer and Church of Scotland minister. He is a member of the Iona Community, a broadcaster, and former student activist. He works throughout the world, lecturing in theological colleges in the UK, Canada and the United States, but is primarily concerned with the renewal of congregational worship at the grass roots.

Kelvingrove is a place in Glasgow, Scotland, perhaps best known for the museum with that name. The tune that bears the name KELVINGROVE is a traditional Scottish one linked with a text by Thomas Lyle (1792-1859), "Let us haste to Kelvin Grove, bonnie lassie, O," published in The Scottish Minstrel (1811) as KELVIN WATER. Before that in the eighteenth century it was paired with "Bonnie Lassie-O (The Shearing's Nae for You)," which is about a young woman being raped.

The tune-darkly paradoxically--works very well with this text by John Bell, and one has to believe that the irony of such a tune for a story of rape was not lost on those who sang it in the eighteenth century either.

Offertory: “Meditation on ‘RUSTINGTON’” Hugh S Livingston, Jr. (1945-2014)

C. Hubert H. Parry's RUSTINGTON was first published in the Westminster Abbey Hymn Book (1897) as a setting for Benjamin Webb's "Praise the Rock of Our Salvation." The tune is named for the village in Sussex, England, where Parry lived for some years and where he died.

Hugh S Livingston, Jr. served in music ministries in Tennessee, Indiana, and Ohio, providing his talents as a choral director, pianist, organist, and trumpeter. Even in his retirement, Hugh remained active as a church musician, and shared his musical gifts with hundreds of people in assisted living and nursing homes.

Opening Voluntary: “Bridegroom” James Biery (1956)

Peter Cutts (1937) wrote this melody for "As the bridegroom to his chosen." It was first published in 100 Hymns for Today (London, 1969). He was born in Birmingham, England. He sang in the Birmingham Cathedral Choir, and later earned diplomas in Music and Theology.

James Biery is an American organist, composer and conductor who is Minister of Music at Grosse Pointe Memorial Church (Presbyterian) in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, where he directs the choirs, plays the 66-rank Klais organ and oversees the music program of the church. Prior to this appointment Biery was music director for Cathedrals in St. Paul, Minnesota and Hartford, Connecticut.

Closing Voluntary: “Processional from Partita on ‘Crucifer’, Charles Callahan (1951)

Paired perfectly with our Sending hymn, today’s Closing Voluntary is the first movement of a partita based on the hymn tune, CRUCIFER, composed by Sydney H. Nicholson (1875-1947), who wrote this tune for the text with which it appeared in the 1916 Hymns Ancient and Modern supplement. It is a processional tune that appropriately accompanies the cross borne by the crucifer, for whom it is named.

Charles Callahan is a well-known composer, organist, choral conductor, pianist and teacher. He is a graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, Pa., and The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC. Callahan compositions are performed frequently in church and concert; his writing style has been described by The Washington Post as gentle, confident lyricism.