From Rockburn to Verdun and Back

Knowing that our beloved pipe organ would soon be leaving SouthWest, I had planned to share some pictures from the period when it was being assembled down near the U.S. border, and then installed. When I had not realized that this past Wednesday would be the day it would be taken apart. I’m not sure what will be left to greet churchgoers this coming Sunday. Over the next weeks, it will be reassembled at Rockburn Presbyterian Church. May it bring them joy. Here is the image that greeted me on Wednesday:

The process of getting it built and installed in the first place took almost two years and we have many many photos to tell the tale. Click below to see just a few. You might have to click “Join” to see them.

Updates: The Pipe Organ

As mentioned last week, the church has been sold to another congregation. As the buyer was not interested in our wooden pipe organ, we wanted to find it a good home.
You will recall the organ was built for us between 2008 and 2010 by Wolf Kater of Rockburn, Quebec, (with some blood sweat and tears contributed by Dennis Brown and other SouthWest people). Rockburn is just a hop and a skip from the U.S. border, south of Ormstown. There is a little stone Presbyterian church there which dates from 1856. These days it is less denominational, seeing itself as a “Village church.” On Sundays they welcome a rotating cast of worship leaders including Stewart Burrows. You remember Stewart: he led worship at SouthWest several times, guitar in hand, back before the pandemic.

Anyway, it was decided to offer them the pipe organ, with the understanding that taking it down, transporting it and reassembling it in their church would be entirely up to them. Those present at the meeting following worship last Sunday voted unanimously in support of this plan. Wolf has been made aware and, what with living just down the road, he should be a great help in getting this done. No money will change hands between our two congregations (unless it’s a symbolic dollar) but we at SouthWest will have the peace of knowing that our organ, which we have enjoyed some twelve years, is still making a joyful noise unto the Lord. Sarah Fraser, who lives in that part of the world herself, says we should all go down for a service one Sunday once the organ has been installed. Chances are she will still have occasion to play it from time to time in its new home, which, when you think about it, is also its old home.

Rockburn Presbyterian Church

Rocks, Trees, Skies, Seas

If you attended the May 22nd service, you heard Sarah introduce a character with the extraordinary name of Maltbie Davenport Babcock.

For those who missed it, Babcock was a noted minister and author of the 19th century. Born in 1858 in Syracuse, New York, he received his degree in theology in 1882. He was described by contemporaries as having "an unusually brilliant intellect and stirring oratorical powers that commanded admiration, [and] won for him a foremost place among the favorites of his denomination".

While pastoring at Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, Maryland, he was acclaimed for his oratory and use of colorful metaphors in his sermons. He also led a fund-raising effort to assist Jewish refugees from Russia who were victims of an anti-Jewish pogrom in the 1880s. Babcock was honored by a Doctor of Divinity degree from Syracuse University in 1896. (Source: Wikipedia)

Throughout his life, Babcock would go out for walks in nature, telling his wife he was "going out to see the Father's world" – and now we come to the reason his name came up during the SouthWest service. Babcock wrote several poems and hymns, which were only published after his death. The most well-known is titled, This is My Father’s World.  

In the present day United church, we know it under a slightly different title, This is God’s Wondrous World. Otherwise, the words, full of images of the natural world, are the same. Sarah submitted that there was nothing wrong with the original first line and proceeded to lead the choir and congregation in singing them as Maltbie Davenport Babcock intended!

This is my Father’s world, and to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings
The music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world; I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas
His hand the wonders wrought.

This is my Father’s world; The birds their carols raise;
The morning light, the lily white,
Declare their Maker’s praise.
This is my Father’s world; He shines in all that’s fair;
In the rustling grass I hear Him pass,
He speaks to me everywhere.

This is my Father’s world; O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father's world: why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King; let the heavens ring!
God reigns; let the earth be glad!

Incidentally, these original lyrics appear in the old Crawford Park hymnary which we mentioned two weeks ago.
Maltbie Davenport Babcock died in Naples in 1901 at only 42 years of age. He was returning from the Holy Land where it seems he had contracted a bacterial infection.

70 Years of Song

You may recall that the church building in which we still worship was built in two stages: the first floor was completed and the cornerstone laid in 1947. The congregation worshipped in what is now the church hall for five years until the money could be raised and the work completed on the second level, which is now our sanctuary, in 1952.

Elsewhere in this Blog, I shared a letter from Rev. John C. Downing to the congregation on the occasion of the dedication of the “superstructure” of Crawford Park United Church in 1952, which happens to be 70 years ago.

Several services and events marked that proud event, and the bulletin reproduced below shows the order of service for the Friday evening service, on November 7th, and the Sunday morning Remembrance service on November 9th, 1952, both of which Rev. Downing referred to in his aforementioned letter. (Text continues below)

Rev. Downing led worship on the Sunday morning, but the Friday service was led by Rev. H.B. Campbell, D.D. The internet tells me that Rev. Harvey Binkley Campbell was at that time the Minister at Westmount Park-Emmanuel church. Perhaps he was at Crawford Park representing Presbytery for this service of Dedication.

H.B Campbell was born in 1891 in Wentworth County north of Hamilton Ontario, and served as a Gunner in the First World War. He met Grace MacLennan Grant when they were classmates at Queen’s University in Kingston. They married in 1919 and Grace Campbell went on to become a distinguished Canadian author. Rev. Campbell earned his Doctor of Divinty from the United Theological College in Montreal. The couple had three sons, two of whom were killed in action in World War II. Over the course of his career, Rev. Campbell served congregations in Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec. He passed away in 1976.

If you look at the hymns chosen for the services in the bulletin above, you will notice they have mysterious names like “Morecombe” and “Maryton”. As I understand it, these names are a way of identifying tunes which may be used for several different texts. They are still indexed at the back of our current hymnbook. We are lucky enough to still have a copy of the 1930 United Church Hymnary which I believe is the book being referenced in the bulletin.
Hymn number 157, or “Morecombe” in the old hymnal, is titled The Holy Spirit, but it is essentially the hymn we call Spirit of God, Descend Upon my Heart (VU 378). The Processional Hymn is an oldie! It is based on the Scottish Psalter of 1650, and begins,

Ye gates, lift up your heads on high;
Ye doors that last for aye,
Be lifted up that so the King of Glory enter may.

With a bit of sleuthing, we could reconstruct a good part of those services, though I guess the sermons are lost to the sands of time.

Amy

SouthWest Service March 13 2022 (2nd of Lent)

Music Notes

It can be hard to concentrate these days, hard not to feel the constant and present danger of events in Europe. Hard not to feel helpless and a bystander to inevitability.

 But children are still laughing in the playgrounds, and in bomb shelters too, however squeezed of a normal existence they are. Given a chance, life will win out, always.   

To smile is not to ignore.  

Please join us this Sunday and be strong in our community. There will be music to answer our anguish, but there will also be music to banish the darkness for awhile. It is Saint Patrick’s Day next week, and Howard Welburn will sing and lead us in its celebration at the close of our Lenten service.

Let us come together in song.

Sarah

Order of Service February 13, 2022

Download this Sunday’s bulletin here.

Two of the hymns in today’s service are not from Voices United or More Voices, our usual hymnbooks. You may download the lyrics here if you wish:

The Winter Hymn Project 4

I know it’s going to be colder on the weekend, but right now, yesterday and today, there’s been a hint of spring-to-come in the air. Bliss! Anybody else looking forward to that first cup of coffee outside? Let the countdown begin, and that includes the number of weeks left in the Winter Hymn Project. So…keep those hymn suggestions coming (email addresses below), and we’ll sing our way through to spring!

We have a wonderful collection of hymns this week, including two that are not in the ‘regular’ hymn books. I’ve copied out a few verses for each of them, which you can find below.

Angela Barraclough: VU 291 All Things Bright and Beautiful

I would appreciate hearing All Things Bright and Beautiful. This was one of my Mom’s favorite hymns. I am sure she really loved it because of her love for animals and nature.   We played it for her funeral at the church and also played it for my Aunt Rene’s funeral. I have been fortunate to watch the South West’s services on YouTube each week. I love the music. It has been so uplifting.

Douglas Hastie: VU 409 Morning Has Broken
*Standing by a Purpose True

A couple of my favorite hymns are Morning has Broken and an old Presbyterian one, Standing by a Purpose True (sometimes known as Dare to be a Daniel).  The first time that I heard Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam) sing Morning Has Broken was in the early 70’s. I was hooked and it became one of my favorites. It still is. When I was 9 or 10, I would sometimes stay after Sunday School and go to church with my Uncle George. My father had died several years earlier and my mother worked on Sunday at CJAD as the switchboard operator. It seemed like Standing by a Purpose True was the favorite of the minister as we seemed to sing it often. I remember belting it out while standing on the wooden floors in the old church.

Cheryl Runciman Mees: VU 703 In the Bulb There is a Flower

In the Bulb There is a Flower is one of my favourites because of the hope it offers. I especially love listening to it on bad days and in the winter.

Bruce Padgham: *I Come to the Garden Alone

I would like the hymn I Come to the Garden Alone in memory of my Grandmother Padgham. It was her favourite hymn.

*I Come to the Garden Alone

I come to the garden alone,
While the dew is still on the roses;
And the voice I hear, falling on my ear,
The Son of God discloses.
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

He speaks, and the sound of His voice
Is so sweet, the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me,
Within my heart is ringing.
Refrain

I’d stay in the garden with Him,
Though the night around me be falling,
But He bids me go; through the voice of woe,
His voice to me is calling.
Refrain

*Standing by a Purpose True

Standing by a purpose true,
heeding God’s command,
honor them, the faithful few!
All hail to Daniel’s band!

Refrain:
Dare to be a Daniel!
Dare to stand alone!
Dare to have a purpose firm!
Dare to make it known!

Many mighty men are lost,
daring not to stand,
who for God had been a host
by joining Daniel’s band. [Refrain]

Hold the gospel banner high;
on to vict’ry grand;
Satan and his host defy,
and shout for Daniel’s band. [Refrain] 

To request a hymn for an upcoming service, contact :
Sarah: saromica@yahoo.ca
or the Office: Southwestunited@gmail.com

Winter Playlist 2

This is small collection of gems, music that says so much in a short space of time.

I love French ‘chansons,’ from Gabriel Fauré to Edith Piaf to many others. And since this is a winter playlist, how can I not include Quebec’s own Gilles Vigneault singing his winter anthem, Mon Pays. Mon pays ce n’est pas un pays, c’est l’hiver…. 

Now, for a singer who inhabits all he sings, emotion in every syllable, here is Jacques Brel singing Dans le port d’Amsterdam. Personal for me, I’ll admit, since I lived for such a long time in Amsterdam and discovered Jacques Brel while I was there.

The next Jacques Brel is the classic Ne me quitte pas. Three years ago, for the Remembrance service at SouthWest, Arielle Soucy sang this song. She was reluctant at first, but sang it so well.

Another gem, but this one at the piano. Sad? Not really, but pensive, emotional, and reflective, yes.

Chopin: Piano Nocturne #1

For a song that soothes, inspires, and will never fail to make you feel better about life, there is nothing like the wonderful Louis Armstrong singing What a Wonderful World.

Greetings to everyone.

Stay warm, stay safe,

And til soon.

Sarah 

The Winter Hymn Project, Week 3

As winter wends its way to closing the door on January, the light becomes brighter and the days ever longer... very, very soon our thoughts will turn to spring and yellow daffodils!

Once more, we have hymns from close by and far away. And once more I say: open your books and send me a message, please!

Sarah: saromica@yahoo.ca

Marco Ste Marie

Mes deux hymnes préférés en ce moment sont :

These days, my two favourite hymns are:

VU701 What Does the Lord Require of Me

MV 209 Go Make a Difference

Dis un gros bonjour à tout le monde à SouthWest. Vous me manquez tous beaucoup !

A big hello to everyone at SouthWest. I miss you all a lot!

Allan Bevand: VU 642 Be Thou My Vision

One of my favorites is "Be Thou My Vision." It relaxes me and seems to take a lot of my stress away, calming me down inside. It warms my soul and makes me feel I am not alone.

I know there are always friends and family but often I think we feel alone in this world, when I hear this song that feeling goes away for a while.