It’s hard to sing the old hymns anymore. The words and language are just too archaic or the doctrinal aspects of them are overwhelmingly inappropriate in a post-theistic community. As a result, from time to time, Scott or I tweak songs that are in the public domain or rewrite them altogether. We have published and updated a number of these in our collection, Sing It Forward, but I still feel like there aren’t enough.
And so I set a challenge for myselt: write new words for one traditional hymn tune a week. So far, I’ve tweaked two and rewritten two others. Here’s one of them. It can be sung to the tune Slane most often associated with Be Thou My Vision. The tune has some extra beats in it so you’ll want to sing it through and see where those beats best lie before asking a congregation to sing it together!
Please feel free to use it or tweak it for your own purposes. Simply credit me and maybe add the address to this website. Thanks!
Wise in the Ways of the World
Tune: Slane
Wise in the ways of the world, we now rise,
all truths we know and all truths we surmise
op’ning our minds to implausible quests;
strength’ning our hearts for life’s challenging tests.
Greeting tomorrow’s discoveries with faith
that all will share in the progress we make.
All given hope that their future is bright,
working together to bring the world light.
Beating love’s rhythm o’er centuries long,
may our bold hearts pulse with passion and song.
Fair is the morning when justice is found;
freed from its poverty, all life is unbound.
© 2014, gretta vosper