[admin]

I suspect it is just modern political thought - the implication that as God has made one high or lowly that is where one should stay is uncomfortable in this age of meritocracy. The words can be found here: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/a/l/allthing.htm

[lancecornea]

This is what the Australian Hymn Book "Together in Song" does to the verses of that hymn to make it relevant to Aussies:

The wildflowers in their beauty,
the mountain ranges tall,
the billabongs and rivers,
and friendly birds that call

Refrain

The coloured walls of gorges.
the gum trees green and tall,
the rocks, the pools, the palm trees,
the sparkling waterfall

Refrain

The many coloured corals,
the creatures of the sea,
of bushland, field or desert,
on farms, or roaming free

Refrain

It makes me want to throw up, although friendly birds giving me a call would be quite acceptable

Lance
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The older I get, the better I was.

[Jason Evans]

[Andrew Butler]

Another verse I have seen (many years ago)

And all the dogs and horses,
the friendly cows and sheep;
God gave us all his flowers
and animals to keep

Oh, and has anyone heard the version on the SciFi channel advert?

[diapason8]

Have you seen the 'amended', politically correct, version of the 'rich man' verse:

The poor man in his castle,
the rich man at the gate.
The charge is seven and sixpence
to look round the estate.



N
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Advena ego sum in Terra

[admin]

[Jason Evans]

[admin]

[diapason8]

I must agree with admin, that, whilst to us in the 21st century (even to elderly anglicans like me) this verse seems patronising in the extreme; it was, in it's time, accepted as the norm. Remember, Mrs Alexander lived from 1818 to 1895. In 1831, only 4,500 men , out of a population of more than 2.6 million people, were entitled to vote in parliamentary elections. The'Great' Reform Act of 1832 gave the vote in towns only to men who occupied property with an annual value of £10, which excluded six adult males out of seven and all women, from the voting process. So, when Mrs Alexander wrote that verse, she was simply reflecting the political realities of her time. Many other Victorian hymns contain theology which we would now question, just as the Victorian hymn writers were questioning earlier theologies. Doubtless, fifty years hence,many will be questioning the theologies expressed in the hymns of, say, Fred Pratt-Green, John Bell and Graham Kendrick. . Eliot commented that ‘The church must be forever building, for it is forever decaying within and attacked from without ………… Much to cast down, much to build, much to restore ;Let the work not delay, time and the arm not waste’. So, and as we're discussing hymnody I make no apology for quoting yet another Victorian, Henry Francis Lyte, "change and decay in all around I see". But, I must ask the question, is all change, always, synonymous with decay? And again, to really throw the cat amongst the pigeons, should we be changing the words of hymns, simply because we feel that `social circumstances, the meanings of words or theological ideologies have changes since they were written. What right do we have to change someone else's poetry? And will the PC brigade start altering Shakespeare next?

Nigel
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Advena ego sum in Terra

[Jason Evans]

Nigel,

Thanks for your comments (from the elder statesman on the board?... just kidding ) and input. Yet I question the relevance of Shakespeare in this discussion. Shakespeare's writings transcend their time and -to me, at least- have little to do with Elizabethan/Jacobean theologies as related to worship in the church. Alexander's poem, on the other hand, is stuck in its time and was intended for church worship with little regard for future values.

Why not change it? It's no masterpiece, and I would hate for some unsuspecting soul to stumble into an Anglican service where this is sung and wonder what we've all been smoking.

This is not to say that I favour changing words indiscriminately just because they aren't PC. There was a fuss some years back over Simon Rattle's recording of Show Boat because the original words to Old Man River , "Colored folks on the Mississippi..." were not changed to accomodate modern taste. Show Boat is a masterpiece very much reflecting its time; it is not a hymn to be sung in a house of God.

[diapason8]

I mentioned Shakespeare to highlight that nothing seems to be 'sacred' (ie too valuable ) to be changed - and usually dumbed-down -by the rampaging PC brigade. All things b&b is hardly a 'highbrow' text, but, it is relevant as a product of its time. I worked briefly for a priest who refused to allow many well-loved hymns to be sung because, in his words, "people these days won't understand them". Surely, the answer is, to spend a minute explaining the words and the context in which they were written, rather than to ban or change them. 30 seconds spent in explaining to a congregation the political situation when the 'rich man' verse was written will allow the hymn to be sung, as the motto of the RSCM says, "with the spirit, and with the understanding also".

N
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Advena ego sum in Terra