Singing in Times of Crisis

Carolyn Winfrey Gillette

Singing in Times of Crisis: An Interview with Carolyn Winfrey Gillette

Interviewed by David Gambrell

DG: How did you get involved in writing hymns? Do you remember one of the first hymns you wrote, and what inspired you to write it?

CWG: I want to first thank you for your support of my hymn writing over the years. I appreciate having this conversation with you and with the readers of Call to Worship now. 

There are two stories that help to explain how I got involved in writing hymns. Back in 1998, I was taking a weeklong class on the Psalms at the Synod of the Trinity’s Synod School in Central Pennsylvania. Dr. Peter C. Bower, who taught the class, was talking with us about psalms that had been set to familiar hymn tunes. Someone in the class, wandering from the subject a bit, asked if anyone had ever seen a version of the Ten Commandments set to a traditional hymn tune. I started thinking about the wonderful hymns written to familiar hymn tunes by Jane Parker Huber and Ruth Duck. I loved to make up songs for our children, and I thought about how a hymn on the Ten Commandments might help children learn that piece of Scripture. I tried writing my first hymn that afternoon. My husband and co-pastor, Bruce, shared the hymn with a pastor friend who used it at her church’s vacation Bible school the following Sunday. We were on vacation that Sunday, so we went to the church and heard the children sing it; the wonderful response from that congregation encouraged me to keep writing. The song was later used by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in a curriculum for children.

There was another hymn that was important in my first few months of writing hymns. In the fall of 1998, Hurricane Mitch killed more than seven thousand people in Honduras, causing great devastation in a country that was already facing so much injustice and poverty. Hurricane Mitch was the worst natural disaster in the Western Hemisphere in the twentieth century according to the United Nations. I had just been there with a church group a few months earlier. So, I wrote a new hymn, “The Storm Came to Honduras,” to the tune PASSION CHORALE (“O Sacred Head, Now Wounded”).    

Those were the early days of the Internet. Bruce was able to go online and figure out pretty much all the Presbyterian churches in the United States that were online. There weren’t that many. He emailed all those churches individually, sharing my hymn of lament for Honduras. A number of those churches used the hymn the following Sunday; they were grateful to have a hymn that was a prayer so directly related to the disaster. Church World Service later told me that that hymn, as well as some others of mine that were related to disasters, had helped them raise millions of dollars as they helped people to focus and pray about world events and support relief efforts.

The PBS-TV news program “Religion and Ethics Newsweekly” wanted to use the hymn on their show with a montage of photos from Honduras. It was midweek and we were vacationing in Maryland when they requested a recording of a choir singing the hymn. A friend of ours who taught at Gettysburg College was able to have the Gettysburg College Choir make a recording of the hymn for the PBS-TV show.

The Storm Came to Honduras
PASSION CHORALE 7.6.7.6 D (“O Sacred Head, Now Wounded”)

The storm came to Honduras,
To Nicaraguan towns;
El Salvador felt anguish
As rains came crashing down.
O God of wind and water
Who made the sea and sky,
Amid such great destruction,
We ask a mournful, “Why?”

Great walls of mud and water
Swept homes and towns away:
A thousand Rachels weep now
For children lost today,
A million madres mourn now
As rivers flood the shore—
O Jesus, friend and Savior,
You suffer with the poor.

A weaving loom is shattered,
A school in ruin lies,
A bridge is washed downriver,
A lonely child cries;
O Spirit, send your comfort—
And give us faith that dares.
For when our neighbors suffer
Our lives are bound to theirs.

Biblical References: Romans 12:13,15; Matthew 25:31–46; 1 John 3:17–18
Tune: Hans Leo Hassler, 1601; harmony by Johann Sebastian Bach, 1729 (“O Sacred Head, Now Wounded”)
Text: Copyright © 1998 by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette. All rights reserved.
Included in Gifts of Love: New Hymns for Today’s Worship (Louisville, KY: Geneva Press, 2000) and Community of Christ Sings (Independence, MO: Herald Publishing House, 2013).
Email: carolynshymns@gmail.com
New Hymns: www.carolynshymns.com/

Those early hymns are examples of Bruce’s and my wonderful partnership in regard to my hymn writing. He would sometimes make suggestions for new hymns or give helpful background reading. I would write new hymns to familiar hymn tunes, and he would share them with others.

DG: Your hymns have been sung throughout the United States and around the world. Do you have a favorite story about where one of your hymns has been sung?

CWG: I have a favorite story about two of my hymns that were used on the same day. Early on, we were amazed at how easy it was to share my hymns with churches online. At the time, our children were learning geography in school, so we found an outline map of the United States and started coloring in the states with an orange magic marker whenever we heard of another place where one of my hymns had been sung. We also kept track of hymns that were sung internationally. One morning, an Anglican church in the United Arab Emirates requested the use of one of my hymns. Later that same day, a church in Alaska in a small community above the Arctic Circle asked to use one of my hymns. We found great joy in knowing that my hymns were appealing to people in such diverse places on the same day.

DG: You have been commissioned to write hymns for many different organizations and occasions. Can you share an example of one that was a response to a crisis?

CWG: An ongoing crisis that touches our whole world is the situation that many immigrants and refugees find themselves in. It is caused by a combination of things—climate change, violence and war, economic injustice, political unrest, violence against women, prejudice, and our own lack of creativity and welcome. Immigrants and refugees are fleeing for their lives and trying to find a place they can survive and thrive. Some countries are struggling to find the resources to help; others are making some efforts but failing to respond adequately.

I wrote “Abraham Journeyed to a New Country” as a prayer for these new neighbors and for churches that are seeking to respond with welcome and love. As is the case with many of my hymns, I began with the Bible. I lifted up biblical stories of people who were on the move—Abraham and Sarah, God’s people fleeing from Egypt, Ruth trying to find her way in a new land that was not her own, Jesus’ parents fleeing into Egypt with their young child, and more.   

In that hymn-prayer, I also lifted up the reasons that immigrants seek new countries today. One time, a few years after I wrote the hymn, I was at a conference and a woman came up to me and said, “Last summer I was at a worship service where we sang your song on immigration (“Abraham Journeyed . . .”), and it changed my mind about immigration!” She said she started to see immigrants not as a problem, but as people in need of welcome and love. That is the power of music. Hymns are prayers, and through God’s Holy Spirit, they have the power to change us.

Abraham Journeyed to a New Country
BUNESSAN 5.5.5.4 D (“Morning Has Broken”)

Abraham journeyed to a new country;
Sarah went with him, journeying too.
Slaves down in Egypt fled Pharaoh’s army;
Ruth left the home and people she knew.

Mary and Joseph feared Herod’s order;
Soldiers were coming! They had to flee.
Taking young Jesus, they crossed the border;
So was our Lord a young refugee.

Some heard the promise—God’s hand would bless them!
Some fled from hunger, famine and pain.
Some left a place where others oppressed them;
All trusted God and started again.

Did they know hardship? Did they know danger?
Who shared a home or gave them some bread?
Who reached a hand to welcome the stranger?
Who saw their fear and gave hope instead?

God, our own families came here from far lands;
We have been strangers, “aliens” too.
May we reach out and offer a welcome
As we have all been welcomed by you.

Biblical References: Genesis 12; Ruth 1; Matthew 2:13–16, 10:40, 25:31–46; Hebrews 11, 13:2; Leviticus 19:18, 33–34
Tune: Traditional Gaelic melody (“Morning Has Broken”)
Text: Copyright © 2010 by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette. All rights reserved.
Email: carolynshymns@gmail.com
New Hymns: www.carolynshymns.com/

That particular hymn was publicized by the National Council of Churches and was used by the World Council of Churches and the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops. It was also sung at a national meeting on immigration of the Episcopal Church. While I am grateful to all these groups that used it, I was most touched by the story of the woman who said, “When I sang your hymn, it changed my mind.” May all the hymns we sing lead us to be more welcoming and loving.

I later wrote a hymn after Kabul fell to the Taliban; it was a prayer for the refugees who were fleeing and for those who were still in that troubled land. Two weeks later our church in rural New York State welcomed an Afghan father and his four children. They continue to live above our church office and are a wonderful blessing to our church, to Bruce, and to me. We are grateful for how the church we are serving, other churches in the area, and the local school and community have helped this family.  

DG: How do you go about writing a new hymn in response to current events? Where do you start—with a biblical text, a news story, or some combination?

CWG: How did I start writing each of these hymns? I would have to say that I write as a pastor.  Pastors lead worship, and pastors pray. Hymns are sung prayers, and we in church pray about the needs of the world. We pray about local needs but also about the things we see on the news. I write hymns that help people find, and sing, words of lament, compassion, love, and hope.

So when I write about a disaster or some contemporary challenge, I start by praying. What do I need to pray? What will the people in my church be needing to pray?¹ What are the ethical issues that we need to pay attention to? Who are the people that the hymn might be about? I seek to talk with some of them and later share a draft of the hymn for their feedback. What is God calling us to do? A hymn is not so much a statement about something that has happened; a hymn is a crying out to God in the face of what has happened. We express our emotions and thoughts to God who loves us and who is present with us through everything.

Early on in the writing process, I choose a tune. I pay attention to the mood that the tune creates—especially when I’m looking for a tune for a lament. An appropriate tune certainly provides the framework for a hymn.

I also pay attention to the emotions of those who will be singing the hymn. What words can sensitively help people to bring their heartbreak before God? What words can motivate people to do what is loving in the face of a difficult or overwhelming situation? 

I often write these hymns late into the evening, and into the night. When the house is silent, it is easier to hear the words that I need to write. I need to be able to listen.

I have written a number of hymns in response to natural and human-made disasters. I wrote “In Haiti, There Is Anguish” after the earthquake in Haiti, as I remembered that country that I had visited years earlier when I was on a mission trip while in college. I have written several hymns in response to gun violence—including after several school shootings, the shooting at Emanual African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, and the shooting at the Pulse Nightclub in Florida. 

More recently, I have written about the disaster of climate change and God’s call to us to care for the earth that God created and loves. A hymn I wrote about climate change was sung at the World Council of Churches worship service for the UN Conference of the Parties meeting in Poland, and it was given to Pope Francis as part of a gift book by the World Methodist Council.  

I wrote several hymns during the pandemic, including “This Easter Celebration,” which expressed the isolation congregations felt. It was translated into seven languages by the conservative Church of Christ and also shared by the progressive National Council of Churches.  I think that was the most popular of all my hymns; my personal Facebook posting showed that it reached over seven hundred thousand people (not counting the many people who sang it in churches). Diverse traditions within the Christian faith see the value of singing hymns that address contemporary issues from a faith perspective.

DG: Why is it important for us to sing in times of crisis? In the face of danger or the aftermath of disaster, how does music shape and sustain our faith?

CWG: I think we need to sing all the time, on all kinds of occasions, and for that reason I have written more than five hundred hymns. Most of them don’t begin with a crisis; they begin with a biblical story. Churches that use the lectionary might find my book I Sing to My Savior: New Hymns from the Stories in the Gospel of Luke helpful; it contains seventy-seven new hymns and meditations covering the Annunciation (chapter 1) to the Ascension (chapter 24). Yet even in these “biblical” hymns, I try to make sure there is contemporary relevance. “O God, You Give Us Neighbors” begins with the parable of the Good Samaritan and moves to our calling as Christians to welcome new neighbors who are immigrants.

It is important for us to sing in challenging times because it is important for us to pray—and to pray together with one voice. That’s the beauty of singing hymns. In some musical genres, soloists or ensembles lead the singing and the congregation sometimes listens rather than singing along. But singing together is something we need to do; when we sing hymns, we sing together. We pray as one.

Hymns reach down into some place deep within us. They touch us in ways that spoken words cannot do. They become part of us. When my grandmother had dementia and was in a nursing home, there came a time when she did not speak very much. Yet if the nursing home staff had a special program where they played the old familiar songs, she would brighten up and sing right along. She still knew all the words.  

The words we sing become a part of who we are. So it is with our hymns. When we can’t find words to speak, our hymns—by God’s grace—are strong enough to carry both the sense of urgency and the depth of God’s love for those facing crises.

On September 11, 2001, I wrote a hymn that began, “O God, our words cannot express the pain we feel this day . . .” Yet, our words had to express our pain that day. We had to pray. We had to sing. We had to cry out to God in that time when we were overwhelmed and grieving and still trying hard to trust in God’s love and mercy. We had to say out loud what we remembered from the teachings of Jesus—about neighbors, strangers, hope, and trust.  

My 9/11 hymn ended up on PBS-TV and BBC-TV in the United Kingdom. Someone made copies of my hymn and left them in a chapel in Heathrow Airport. The hymn was sung at the funerals of firefighters who died in the Twin Towers. A woman wrote to me six months later and said she had been carrying my hymn in her purse ever since 9/11, and when she felt depressed or overwhelmed, she pulled it out and read it. In a world that was shouting words of hate and revenge, we Christians needed to sing in the shelter of God’s loving wings.  

O God, Our Words Cannot Express
ST. ANNE 8.6.8.6 (“Our God, Our Help in Ages Past”)

O God, our words cannot express
The pain we feel this day.
Enraged, uncertain, we confess
Our need to bow and pray.

We grieve for all who lost their lives . . .
And for each injured one.
We pray for children, husbands, wives
Whose grief has just begun.

O Lord, we’re called to offer prayer
For all our leaders, too.
May they, amid such great despair,
Be wise in all they do.

We trust your mercy and your grace;
In you we will not fear!
May peace and justice now embrace!
Be with your people here!

Tune: Attributed to William Croft, 1708 (“Our God, Our Help in Ages Past”)
Text: Copyright © 2001, 2011 by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette. All rights reserved.
Permission is given for use of this hymn for local church use.
Included in Songs of Grace: New Hymns for God and Neighbor (Upper Room Books, 2009).
Email: carolynshymns@gmail.com
New Hymns: www.carolynshymns.com/

The secular media has noticed some of these hymns and asked me about them. I think it is because they are surprised that the church is saying something relevant to the issues and challenges of today. They think these hymns are unusual. I know there are many wonderful, talented writers of contemporary hymns who also write about the things we need to pray about in our world. For me, for many other writers, and for many churches, this is what we do in times of trouble: We lament. We pray. We sing old and new songs of faith. We trust God. We find strength and courage to be faithful. 

I am grateful that the new hymnary supplement published by the Church of Scotland, God Welcomes All (May 2024), includes three of my hymns. The Church of Scotland’s Facebook post on July 4 features this prayer: “Living God, You set us in community, surrounded by people in need. We carry their needs in our hearts and we cannot leave them at the door of our church when we come to worship. It is our responsibility, and our privilege, to bring them to You in our prayers.” My hymns are prayers set to music that seek to follow this prayer.  

Editor’s note: For those who are interested in learning more about the hymns of Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, all 500+ of them are on her website: www.carolynshymns.com. The website includes a topical index, a Scripture index, and a lectionary index. New hymns are also posted on Facebook. Carolyn welcomes conversations with people who use her hymns, and she is always open to hearing ideas for new hymns. Her email address is at the bottom of each of the hymn texts that she has written: carolynshymns@gmail.com.  

Note

1. “Prayers of intercession and supplication are offered for: the mission and ministry of the universal Church and the local congregation; care of creation and the right use of resources; peace and justice in the world; the leaders and peoples of all nations; the poor, hungry, and oppressed; compassion and reconciliation in the local community; healing and wholeness for all who suffer; and other special needs.” —Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Directory for Worship, W-3.0308: Prayers of Intercession