Hymns by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette

Tune: Attributed to William Croft, 1708; harmony by William Henry Monk, 1861 ("Our God, Our Help in Ages Past")
Text: Copyright © 2001 by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette. All rights reserved.
Permission is given for use of this hymn for local church use.
Copied from Songs of Grace: New Hymns for God and Neighbor by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette (Upper Room Books, 2009).
Email: bcgillette@comcast.net     New Hymns: www.carolynshymns.com/

Tune: Attributed to William Croft, 1708; harmony by William Henry Monk, 1861 ("Our God, Our Help in Ages Past")
Text: Copyright © 2011 by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette. All rights reserved.
Permission is given for use of this hymn for local church use.
Email: bcgillette@comcast.net     New Hymns: www.carolynshymns.com/

* I am grateful to Pastor Janice Marie E. Lowden of Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Landisville, PA for her revisions of my hymn for 2011.

This hymn was written on the day of September 11, 2001, as we were watching the TV news stories of the World Trade Center Towers collapsing, the Pentagon being attacked, and the plane crashing in western Pennsylvania.

The hymn was shared widely on the Internet and was posted on the Web sites of the PC(USA), Church World Service, ELCA, UMCOR, Church of Scotland's Presbytery of Glasgow, The Text This Week, Deacon Sil's Homiletic Resources Web site (Roman Catholic), CyberHymnal and many others. It appeared in Presbyterians Today magazine in November 2001. The hymn was sung at memorial services for firefighters in New York City, and someone told me there was a stack of copies of my hymn in Heathrow Airport. The hymn was on national PBS-TV in the USA and BBC in United Kingdom. A video of Noel Paul Stookey (of "Peter, Paul & Mary") and the Northfield Mount Herman School Choir singing this hymn was produced by the Emmy-winner Pete Staman. I was amazed by the places it appeared and by the lives it touched.

Lament for 9/11
YouTube video of Noel Paul Stookey (of "Peter, Paul & Mary") and the Northfield Mount Herman School Choir singing this hymn
(2001 original and 2011 revised version for 10th anniversary)

A number of weeks after 9/11/2001, a large brown envelope arrived in our mailbox. It was from the Church School children of a church in Canada, and they had apparently gotten my address because of my writing this hymn. Each child and teacher had written a letter expressing profound sorrow about what had happened on 9/11 and offering prayers for us in that time of tragedy. They asked me to share their letters with children in the United States. Emily, a sixth grader, wrote these words:

To the children of America

Within our tearful world, fear and evil be,
The subject of our chatter, between both you and me.
I pray for those you've lost and those who are in pain,
I hope this never happens to anyone again.
Don't worry about who you've lost,
Whether they be he/she,
For I know God is with them,
So glory let there be.
        —Emily

One of the Sunday School teachers wrote these words in her letter: "I believe in our future. I believe that we will be stronger and have more compassion for other people and I pray that our leaders will, with much work and dedication and with God's guidance, bring peace to our world. -- Sandra"

Another teacher offered these words: "We will remain hopeful that out of this will be born a world more caring, a safer place for us all. God bless you! Judy."

Words cannot express the pain we all felt that day. Yet I treasure all of those Church School children's and teachers' letters, and I am grateful that they found the words to share that day in their Sunday School class. May we all work so that our compassion will shine through. May our leaders work with God's guidance to bring peace, and may our world be a more caring, a safer place for us all.

Adapted from Songs of Grace: New Hymns for God and Neighbor by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette (Upper Room Books, 2009).

Carolyn Winfrey Gillette wrote "O God, Our Words Cannot Express" on September 11, 2001; the hymn was used by many churches on that evening and in the days that followed. "God, We've Known Such Grief and Anger" was commissioned by Presbyterian Disaster Assistance for the first anniversary of 9/11. "O God, Our Hearts Were Shattered" was written for the tenth anniversary, Sunday, September 11, 2011.

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Carolyn Winfrey Gillette is the author of Songs of Grace: New Hymns for God and Neighbor (Discipleship Resources/Upper Room Books, 2009) and Gifts of Love: New Hymns for Today's Worship (Geneva Press, 2000) and the co-pastor of Limestone Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, Delaware. A complete list of her 160+ hymns can be found at www.carolynshymns.com/.