This year when so much is in flux, your worship team wanted to share familiar and beloved songs in worship. We will sing the song each Sunday, so that if it is new to you it will be familiar by the end of the month. Do you have a favorite hymn you’d like to nominate? Contact Rev. Laine or any member of the worship team to share your favorites.

Our December Song #226: People Look East.” Here’s a beautiful rendition by the Huston Chamber Choir https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V3B1is7ddw

The lyrics were written by Eleanor Farjeon, for the Oxford Book of Carols in 1928 as an advent carol. Wikipedia tells us that “Nellie”, as her family called her, was a “small, timid child, who suffered from ill-health throughout her childhood. She was educated at home, spending much of her time in the attic, surrounded by books. Her father encouraged her writing from the age of five. Eleanor came from a literary family, her two younger brothers, Joseph and Herbert Farjeon, were writers, while the oldest, Harry Farjeon, was a composer.”

Eleanor grew up to author children’s stories and plays, poetry, biography, history and satire. She won many literary awards and the Eleanor Farjeon Award for children’s literature is presented annually in her memory by the Children’s Book Circle, a society of publishers.

She also wrote the words for “morning Has Broken.” The melody is a traditional carol melody from Eastern France

You will notice that only the first 3 verses of the carol appear in our grey hymnal, those that don’t include miracles, or hierarchical theological language.