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.
In the beginning was the Word
In the beginning was the Word
In the beginning was the Word,
the Word was with God and the Word was God
All was made through him, all that was;
and without him nothing was made
that was made.
In him was life: the light of men.Out of the desert came a man,
Light shines in the darkness, overcomes it.
In him was life: the light of men,
giving light to the human race.
he came sent by God, and his name was John.
He came to witness to the light,
so that all might come to believe
in the light.
"Prepare the way: the Lord will come,Light that enlightens ev'ry man
and straighten your pathways for his coming:
Prepare the way: the Lord will come,
he will come and he'll not be slow."
was here in the world and we did not see!
He came to visit all his own,
but they failed to recognise him
when he came.
To those who did, he gave the rightIn the beginning was the Word:
to be God's own children, born his children.
To those who did, he gave the right
to be born, to be born of God!
the Word became flesh, we have seen his grace.
If we receive him we can be
born again as children of God.
AMEN!
Words and music copyright © John Hartley 2006.
Based on John 1:1-14 (with a little bit of Isaiah 40:3 in the middle).
Story behind the song
This is a fairly direct attempt to put the opening of John's Gospel - John 1:1-14 - into rhythm in a fairly up-beat and modern style. The "AMEN!" at the end should be shouted rather than sung, and a different shout might be used if it fits better in the local setting.
I originally conceived of it as a Christmas song, but in view of the lack of reference to the baby, the manger, the angels, the shepherds, the stars, the virgin, Bethlehem, the wise men, ... and other such themes, I don't expect it will go very far. On the other hand "O come all ye faithful" doesn't refer to all that many of these things either, so maybe there's hope?
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.