Ascension : Christmas Thoughts/Greetings from Father Chris
Submitted by The Islander (Islander Editors) 22.12.2011 (Article Archived on 05.01.2012)

The singing of Christmas carols is a special joy at this time of the year. Did you know? Many carols, the really old ones, were originally written so that people could dance as well as sing them.

Christmas Thoughts/Greetings from Father Chris

The singing of Christmas carols is a special joy at this time of the year. Did you know? Many carols, the really old ones, were originally written so that people could dance as well as sing them.

One of the most popular of carols Away in a Manger is known by almost everyone and is a firm favourite with children but no one knows who wrote it (it wasn’t Martin Luther !). It first appeared in 1885 in an American Lutheran hymn book for children so the carol and the tune are most likely to be American.

The American, Anglican priest Phillips Brooks wrote the much loved carol O little Town of Bethlehem after a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1886. It was originally written for children and was little known until the English composer Vaughan Williams arranged the tune to which its most often sung today. The carol gives poetic expression to the story of Christmas and the wonder of that first night when

Almighty God entered into human life in the child born to Mary. The carol begins with the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem and closes with Christ being born in our hearts today.

Hark the Herald Angels Sing is the most popular of Wesley’s Christmas songs. It has been translated into many languages and is sung at Christmas time all over the world. Four of the original verses are no longer sung but the fine melody by Felix Mendlesohn makes it a firm favourite in the celebration of the Christmas story.

Young Dolly Byrom lived in Manchester more than a century and a half ago. Her father was a teacher who loved writing poems. One Christmas, Dolly asked her father to write a poem as a Christmas present. That poem is preserved today in the Library of Cheetham’s Hospital Manchester. It bears the title on the original manuscript, “ Christmas Day, For Dolly ” but we know it as “Christians Awake,Salute the Happy Morn.” The tune was composed by  John Wainwright the then organist of Manchester Parish Church ( now the Cathedral).

These verses were written by a family living in the city of Worcester in 1859 on New Year’s Day. The Revd. W.H.Havergal was then rector of St. Nicholas Church and along with his young daughters wrote these lines which became a popular hymn in America but is not found in English hymnals.

1. “ As thy days thy strength shall be!”                3.   Cold and wintry though they prove,

This should be enough for thee,                                Thine, the sunshine of His love;

He who knows thy frame will spare                          Or, with fervid heat oppressed,

Burdens more than thou can bear.                           In His shadow thou shalt rest.

2.  When thy days are veiled in night,                     4.  When thy days on earth are past,

Christ shall give thee heavenly light;                          Christ shall call thee home at last,

Seem they wearisome and long,                                 His redeeming love to praise,

Yet in him thou shalt be strong.                                  Who hath strengthened all thy  

                                                                                           days.

Wishing you all a very happy and memorable Christmas. May our blessed Lord keep you safe and give you joy in your hearts as you celebrate this Christmas.

Father Chris.