This page is provided so that you can hear the tunes of items which we use in church. Mostly they are written by the vicar. Please note that they are copyright - we are very happy to give permission to you to use them, but we would like to hear about it. Please include any use on your Christian Copyright Licence returns.
Down this page:
- the words,
- the story,
- the sheet music,
- media player.
When Christ came
When Christ came
When Christ came
heaven acknowledged the name
of Jesus:
He came as High Priest of God,
his own Son most dear.
As our kin
he redeemed us from sin,
to draw us near
to God's throne,
to make us his own,
clean, without fear.
When Christ came
heaven acknowledged the name
of Jesus:
He entered on our behalf
the Most Holy Place.
Once for all
paid the price for the fall
of Adam's race,
by his blood
poured out for our good,
bringing us grace.
When Christ came
heaven acknowledged the name
of Jesus:
He stands as the bridge to God
for you and for me.
On that day
he took sin's power away
and set us free
at the price
of his sacrifice
on Calv'ry's tree.
Words and music copyright © John Hartley 2005.
Story behind the song
I wrote this song while on a short break before Holy Week. Boating on the Trent and Mersey Canal, I called into a local church to pray, so looked up the Book of Common Prayer readings for the previous Sunday ("Passion Sunday" - 5th Sunday of Lent) - and hit upon this epistle reading. The song is an attempt to put into music the themes of this reading, central to the Christian gospel.
John Hartley
Windows Media Player. When you click the left-hand "play" button your computer should have started to play the tune. If it didn't, you might be able to get the tune by clicking here, or by right-clicking the link, choosing "save target as", saving it onto your computer, and then opening it with a music-playing program.
Please remember that a midi file of a tune isn't supposed to be a state-of-the-art musical arrangement - it is only supposed to give a basic idea of how the tune goes. Any reasonable organist / keyboard player / music group could make it sound far better.