The Rev. Carolyn Winfrey Gillette’s latest is ‘O God, We Give Thanks for the Saints Gone Before Us’
by Mike Ferguson | Presbyterian News Service
Photo by Gianna B via Unsplash
“O God, We Give Thanks for the Saints Gone Before Us” is a new hymn for All Saints Day by the Rev. Carolyn Winfrey Gillette celebrating faithful Christians in the past and present.
The new hymn is set to ASH GROVE, the tune used in “Let All Things Now Living.” All Saints Day is observed every year on Nov. 1.
The new hymn is intended as “a prayer that we will follow Jesus in the world today. In a time when competing voices in society encourage us to abandon the way of Jesus, we need to remember how he taught us to live,” Gillette said.
Gillette has written more than 500 hymns that are sung throughout the United States and overseas and posted in thousands of church websites. This coming Sunday, October 20th, many churches will be singing her hymn for the Church World Service’s CROP Walk, “O God, You Send Us Out to Walk.”
The Rev. Carolyn Winfrey Gillette
Dr. Patricia Tull, author of the Presbyterian Women’s church-wide study lifted it up Gillette’s new book of 45 new hymns and meditations (“God’s World is Changing: New Hymns for Advent and Christmas”), in her first video talk for the PW study. In November, Call to Worship, published by the Office of Theology & Worship in partnership with the Presbyterian Association of Musicians, includes an interview with Carolyn by the Rev. Dr. David Gambrell, Associate for Worship in the Office of Theology & Worship.
Gillette and her husband Bruce serve as pastors for the First Presbyterian Union Church in Owego, New York.
O God, We Give Thanks for the Saints Gone Before Us
ASH GROVE 6.6.11.6.6.11 D (“Let All Things Now Living”)
O God, we give thanks for the saints gone before us —
remembering well how they walked Jesus’ Way.
They valued the truth and would rise to defend it.
They knelt to be kind to the poor day by day.
They welcomed in immigrants, honored new neighbors,
put love before greed, and sought peace over strife.
May we in our homes and our churches and nations
recall Jesus’ teachings and welcome this life.
O God, we give thanks for the saints now among us —
for teachers and helpers and activists, too,
for those in our families and those who work with us
to make the world better, to make the world new.
We thank you for those who seek justice for others,
for those who seek Jesus and live by his grace.
May we in our homes and our churches and nations
give thanks for their witness of love in this place.
O God, we give thanks for the Way Jesus shows us;
may we seek to follow his reign from above.
The world often calls us to hatred and violence,
but Christ’s Way is welcome and mercy and love.
Like prophets, apostles, and martyrs before us,
like those who bear witness to you every day,
may we in our homes and our churches and nations
be saints who are eager to choose Jesus’ Way.
Biblical References: Matthew 5:1-12; Matthew 6:33; John 8:31-32; Matthew 25:31-46; 1 Corinthians 1:1-3; Micah 6:8
Tune: Traditional Welsh melody (“Let All Things Now Living”)
Text: Copyright © 2024 by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette. All rights reserved.
Email: carolynshymns@gmail.com
New Hymns: www.carolynshymns.com
Permission is given for free use of this hymn, including streaming it online. Please share it with other pastors and church musicians.
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