"New Skies" premieres today at All Saints Church

Time flies when you're having fun and so it's hard to believe that here we are pushing the end of May again already and gearing up for the Spring Concert for our Children and Youth Choirs at All Saints Church. If you're in the neighborhood, of course you should drop by. 5pm in the Church. And even if you're NOT in the neighborhood you should know about anthem premiering in the concert this evening.

The title is “New Skies” and it was commissioned by us from Karen P. Thomas, artistic director of Seattle Pro Musica. There are 3 texts that are used through the song. The first is the pledge from the “It Gets Better” website.

Everyone deserves to be respected for who they are.
I pledge to spread this message to my friends, family and neighbors.
I’ll speak up against hate and intolerance whenever I see it,
At school and at work.
I’ll provide hope for lesbian, gay, bi and trans and other bullied teens by letting them know that
“It Gets Better!”

The next text was an anonymous poem that was found on that same website (sung by Trouveres):

Look up!
Let us search for clear sky.
Rain flows in rivers where we stand.
Wind pushes, we sway, but stand still, but stay strong.
There are new skies to come.
Do not say that we are less than,
We are as ever,
Hearts flying wild,
Hope beating heavy and sense turning mad,
Excitement growing,
Hands in hands,
And as ever, and as always,
You want only, simply, to be loved
And come home.

The last poem is Emily Dickinson (sung by Mastersingers and Troubadours and Chamber Choir):

If I can stop one heart from breaking
I shall not live in vain.
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help on fainting robin
Unto his next again,
I shall not live in vain.

They say that those who sing pray twice ... and so these words ... prayed twice as they are sung this evening by the young voices here at All Saints Church ... will be offered "like incense" into a world in desperate need of the love, hope and healing they represent. Songs of healing. Songs of hope. Songs of new skies and a new commitment to be the agents of change that will rid the world of the hatred, intolerance and homophobia that keeps it from being the "kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven" we pray for.
 
And let the people say, "AMEN."