Music has been an integral part of Christian faith and worship from the beginning, offering a unique way to express ourselves—individually and collectively. Our preferences around music often shape our identity in faith communities, sometimes enriching our shared experience and other times creating barriers. Personally, I believe something of God can be found in almost all music, though some genres resonate more clearly for me.
Music, like faith, is a living, evolving tradition. Rewriting lyrics, borrowing tunes, updating metaphors, and translating language are all ways it continues to speak to each generation. Even with written scores, musicians interpret, and listeners filter, bringing their own perspectives to the experience. This dynamic process mirrors how faith grows and adapts over time.
However, conversations around language—particularly the use of patriarchal terminology for God—can be just as challenging as debates about musical styles. Some argue against updating traditional texts to reflect contemporary inclusivity, fearing it may reject or exclude those who hold fond memories of older hymns and carols. But these changes aren’t about erasure; they’re about extending a broader, more compassionate welcome that is characterised by grace, love and mercy.
For someone reliving trauma caused by male-centric language for God, or a woman fleeing abuse who questions her worth, such language can be painful. If we know this and choose to ignore it, sticking to what feels comfortable for us, we risk neglecting the call to meet others in their need.
Not everyone is a wordsmith, poet, songwriter, or liturgist, and that’s okay. Others have the gifts to rework music and liturgy in ways that reflect a more inclusive vision of God. We’re not called to journey alone as we seek to be and do church.
So, in this space, I’ll occasionally share reimagined liturgies and songs—resources you might use, reflect on, or simply consider. You won’t like all of them, and that’s fine. The goal is to encourage dialogue and inspire an inclusive boldness as we continue singing new and old songs alike. Let’s raise our voices and seek to sing in harmony, within our diversity.
Rev’d Chantal Noppen, Jan ’25
The songs below are all reworkings of well-known pieces, suitable for use over Advent/Christmas.
New Magnificat
Praise my soul God above
Tune: ‘’Sing aloud, loud, loud!’, Words by Rev Caroline Beckett, Vicar, Colchester, a familiar face to those who go to the Goth Eucharist at Greenbelt.
And rejoice in his love
He has made love’s first move,
Stooping to the lowly,
Holy, holy, holy!
Sing aloud, loud, loud! God brings down the proud,
Lifts the humble and poor, Evermore we praise him!
God in flesh, can it be?
Gift and grace, mystery!
Heaven’s flame burns in me:
Life of all creation,
Light to every nation.
Blessed I am: God who sees
Found me here on my knees;
Met my fear with his peace:
Mighty and victorious
God the ever glorious!
Caught in sin’s tangled mess
To his call I say yes!
All to come will be blessed.
God does not regret us,
Hate us or forget us.
Merciful one is he,
Bound for our liberty!
We are saved, we are free!
God his promise keeping
Gives us joy for weeping.
– Feel free to use/adapt.
Mary’s Lullaby (Away in a Manger)
Rock musician, Biker, Heavy Metal Lover and Vicar of Holy Trinity, Mixenden and Illingworth, Halifax, Robb Sutherland writes and performs music with Ruth Sutherland, for use in church, pubs, clubs and festivals. Regulars at Greenbelt and known for developing ‘Rock Mass’.
Since the late 19th century, The Church has been held hostage to one of the most theologically facile songs that has ever been sung during a service. All of the accusations of “pie in the sky when you die” and a “bearded man in the sky” can be found in this universal favourite. When combined in a service filled with “baby” Jesus and the Christmas “Story” references, The Church has been inoculating people to the revolutionary faith we have in Christ.
Away in a Manger has become such a large part of our wider cultural memory that planning a service without it can cause disagreements both inside the church community and outside of it. Which is a problematic. A couple of years ago we wondered what it would be like if Away in a Manger was as revolutionary as the Magnificat. Using those words as our inspiration we decided to rewrite Away in a Manger from the perspective of Mary looking at her newborn child.
We have used it for the last couple of years in a variety of different contexts and it goes down really well.
Let’s take back Christmas!
Please use it freely in worship and schools. If you do, please credit “Ruth and Robb Sutherland”.
You can find a recording of this at: https://www.robbsutherland.com/blog/marys-lullaby-2020-free-to-use-christmas-carol/
“Away in a manger, asleep on the hay,
– Lyrics adapted by Ruth and Robb Sutherland
I will watch over you at the end of the day,
The stars in the bright sky shine down where you lie,
As angels sing ‘Glory be to God on high’.”
“My spirit rejoices, for news of your birth
Like wildfire will spread over all of the earth;
A light in our darkness, a hope for the poor,
God’s gift to all people of life evermore.”
“Your name shall be Jesus, for this holy night
Is fulfilment of promise through God’s saving might;
But now sleep in peace, as I sing lullaby,
I will stay by your side til your dawning is nigh.”
The Order of Service from ‘Carols with Pride’, at Truro Cathedral, 18th December 2024, can be found here: https://www.trurocathedral.org.uk/whats-on/carols-with-pride-wed-18-dec-2024-07-30-pm The two carols below were used at that, which Canon Sue Wallace is happy to share:
A million miles from Palestine
Tune: ”O Little Town” English traditional 100CFC p234 Words: SMW 1995
Love waits in an old man’s eyes,
And walking through each darkened avenue
Are angels in disguise
Beneath the tower-blocks is rising
A light too strong to die
Of God, embracing human hearts
And waiting for you and I.
How silently, how silently,
He calls our hearts to care
For all the shattered, broken lives
Of people standing here.
You know our silent longings
The hot tears we have cried
Our hopes, our hurts, our desperate search
For truth within the lies.
The bright stars of the universe
Still dance to the baby’s cry
And every atom in the Earth
Is praising God on high.
For Christ has kissed our human lives
Within a baby’s breath
And God was born to humankind
To rescue us from death.
The centuries are sliding by
And Christmases come and go
And sometimes the Eternal Dream
Is crushed by Santa’s snow.
Yet in the silence the singing
Still fill the glistening air
And for those souls who long to know
The Christ-child will still be there
God rest you merry gentlethem,
God rest you merry p83 100 CFC Text: V1 P.E. Bright, v2-3 Jeffrey Wilson (Creative Commons)
let nothing you dismay,
for Jesus Christ our Saviour
was born on Christmas Day,
to save us all from Satan’s pow’r
when we were gone astray.
O tidings of comfort and joy, Comfort and joy,
O tidings of comfort and joy
God rest you, queer and questioning,
your anxious hearts be still.
Believe that you are deeply known
and part of God’s good will.
For all to live as one in peace;
the global dream fulfilled.
O tidings of comfort and joy
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy
God rest your mind, O humankind,
let strife and conflict cease.
Remember love is active here,
and only to increase,
to carry us to well-springs
of God’s joyous hope and peace.
O tidings of comfort and joy
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy