Spacer
My Top Ten Hymns
My fifth choice is a more modern hymn of worship.
5. God is here! As we his people - Fred Pratt Green
Why one of my choices?
I love the imagery that these words immediately fire into my mind. They sum up the beauty of worship in the presence of God in the familiar physical surroundings of the church buildings we worship in.
Fred Pratt Green was for a short time a supernummary in the same circuit as my Father. He used to occasionally critique and encourage Mum in her poetry writing. Although I was a prolific writer of poetry at the time. (Young love a wonderful source of inspiration.) I never had the courage to ask him to review any of mine.
Words
The words of this hymn are still in copyright so I can not reproduce them here. You can find them in "Singing the Faith" at number 25. Hymns and Psalms - 653
An internet search will bring up the words on sites which have the publishers permission to display them.
Background to the Hymn
This hymn was written in 1978 for a service to dedicate a new communion table, font and reading desks in a Methodist church in Texas, USA.
In common with many of Fred Pratt Greens hymns it is written for a specific purpose and meets a need for a hymn to address a specific circumstance. Whilst on the editorial committee for Hymns and Psalms he was asked to provide hymns on various topics for which no appropriate hymns could be found.
In this case few of our hymns focus on the "furniture" of the church these familiar items which identify so clearly a place of worship.