Hymn of the Month for October 2006

Two hymns in our hymnal, Singing the Living Tradition, are set to the beautiful tune by Jean Sibelius, "Finlandia." We are singing both of them as our "Hymn of the Month" for October, sort of a two-for-the-price-of-one situation.

The first is #318, "We Would Be One," with words by Samuel Anthony Wright. Rev. Wright is minister emeritus of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Marin--their downstairs big room is called the Wright Room. According to Between the Lines:

This text was written to accompany the tune "Sibelius" for Unitarian and Universalist youth at their Continental Convention of 1953-1954. At this conference they merged to form the Liberal Religious Youth of the United States and Canada, setting a model for the Unitarian Universalist denominational consolidation in 1961.

UUP member Jennine Lanouette has pointed out that our hymnal has changed the words that Wright originally wrote in the line:

"We would be one as now we join in singing our hymn of love..."

Wright's original line was sung as

"We would be one as now we join in singing our hymn of youth..."

...which makes perfect sense if you think of the occasion of Wright's penning these words being the uniting of two denominations' youth groups!

Hymn #159 is "This Is My Song," with words by Lloyd Stone, dating to 1934. It is a powerful statement for peace, and manages to express the strong emotions that lead to patriotic feelings and at the same time expand those feelings to include, via empathy, the entire planet. Immediately following the US invasion of Iraq in March 2004, UUP sang this song each week for weeks on end, as our prayer for peace, and our way of expressing the sorrow we felt.

About the tune by Sibelius, Between the Lines has this to say:

Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) was a dominant figure in the development of Finnish music. Born in Hameenlinna, Sibelius was greatly influenced by the Finnish national epic Kalevala, Norse mythology, and nature poetry. He began composing and playing the violin at an early age, and his music for orchestra achieved great popularity in Finland and abroad. This tune, composed as the chorale for his famous symphonic poem, Finlandia (1900), became strongly associated with the patriotic movement to free Finland from Russia.