A Hymn for Our 200th Anniversary – Oxford Presbyterian Church

Reflections on the OPC Bicentennial Hymn
Kent Peterson

I have an OPC T-shirt, the front side of which features the official seal of the Presbyterian Church (USA) wherein one can discern the basic symbols of the cross, Scripture, a descending dove and flames. Framing this seal, one finds the words “You’re always welcome at Oxford Presbyterian Church.” On the back side of the shirt appears the words “Seeking God, Serving Others, Sharing Christ’s Love With All”. I love this shirt and always feel proud to wear it out in public. I mention this because in drafting the lyrics of the new hymn to commemorate the bicentennial of OPC, “Let Us Share Christ ‘s Love With All,” I derived great inspiration from both the symbols and verbiage found on it. The lyrics to the hymnfollows:

Seeking God while serving others,
Striving to discern God’s call,
Let our faith inspire right action
As we share Christ’s love with all.
Holy Spirit guide our conduct.
Gird our deeds with care unbound.
May we welcome all God’s children
To this place where love is found.

We are called to love our neighbors,
Feed the hungry, help the poor,
Nurture care for God’s creation,
Pray for those ensnarled by war.
Comfort those in grief or illness,
Quiet fear with warm embrace,
Keep our hearts and minds on kindness
Welcome all into this place.

We are blessed to be forgiven,
Ever sure of God’s sweet grace.
Though we face a world in turmoil,
There is peace within this space.
Guided by God’s word and wisdom,
Holy Scripture we recall.
Sing out hymns of joyful praises
And proclaim God’s love for all.

As we strive to follow Jesus,
Grant us wisdom, give us peace.
Fix our hearts on grace eternal,
May our love for all increase.
Seeking God in serving others,
Help us, Lord, to heed Your call.
Bearing witness to God’s glory,
Let us share Christ’s love with all.

To employ technical terms, the hymn “Let Us Share Christ ‘s Love With All,” consists of poetic couplets of four trochaic metrical feet in the first and third lines, and three in the second and fourth lines. A trochaic poetic foot is characterized by a pattern of alternating stressed and unstressed syllables. If one counted all of the syllables within a line, not just the stressed ones, a pattern of 87.87 results with lines of eight syllables alternating with lines of seven syllables. From within this metrical construct, I sought to synthesize elements of our motto, our welcome statement, our priorities as a Matthew 25 Church and our congregational calls of Caring for Creation and Eradicating Systemic Poverty into the lyrics for the first two verses of the hymn. For the third verse, I attempt to capture various elements of a typical worship service including the Prayer of Confession and Assurance of Forgiveness, the Passing of the Peace; the expression of God’s Word in both Scripture and sermon; the singing of the choir for the offertory as well as the congressional singing of the final hymn. To account for the possibility of the hymn being sung during the season of Lent, I have supplied alternative text omitting the term “alleluia.” As an inflection point to the verse, I conclude with a reference to our commitment of proclaiming God’s love for all as an act of our work and worship. The final verse employs the use of future and present perfect verb tenses to speak to our aspirational resolve to faithfully follow the teachings of Jesus and share the love of God with all as we move forward from this moment in time onward as a congregation.

It was a challenging task, but I sincerely hope I have been able to paint a faithfully poetic portrait of OPC that meaningfully tells our story as we commence upon a third century of witness and worship. Given the longevity of my tenure at OPC, I have had the distinct privilege and pleasure of watching Michael Hughes grow up in OPC. Knowing of his musical skills, I was eager to involve him in this project. When one considers that the writing of a good hymn tune is a deceptively difficult undertaking, I was absolutely overjoyed when Michael agreed to take this challenge on! In the crafting of a hymn tune, a composer must aim to make it accessible to the average singer while still remaining musically interesting, it has to take into account the demands of appropriately matching the text to the music not only in terms of tone but also taking great care in considerations of articulating the message of the lyrics intelligibly. Finally, the music needs to have an organic logic of musical structure and form that helps to make the tune memorable and easy to recall. So that task is essentially a piece of cake, right? Not by any stretch of the imagination is that the case. I am so pleased that Michael agreed to take on this daunting project! What I truly love about our collaboration is the inter-generational aspect to it. While my age affords me the perspective and experience from which to conceptualize the narrative content of the hymn, Michael’s youth allows him to imbue a fresh, contemporary quality to the music. We hope you take pleasure in and find meaning from this new hymn created specifically for the commemoration and celebration of the bicentennial anniversary of OPC.