Easter

EASTER DAY

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Easter Calypso [169 kb]
Words and Music by Joy Webb

A star is born on Christmas morning
And music is in the air;
His name is spread upon the headlines
And all the people clap their hands and cheer.

A star is born for grief and mourning;
He chooses to die, not live;
He will not make his way by taking
But only by the willingness to give.

The stars above have ways of loving
Beyond all our power to know;
But on the day of our creation
A star dies out the love of God to show.

A star is born on Easter morning.
There's singing in every street;
Where every day I serve my neighbour
The star of Bethlehem's story is complete.

David Goodall (born 1922)
© 1969 Stainer & Bell Ltd
9.7.9.10.

A woman in a world of men
was chosen to receive
the news of Christ alive again,
though men would not believe.

A witness telling what she knew,
her faith, her worth denied,
was first to greet and love anew
the living Crucified.

The hands whose touch had made her well,
with wounds by love made good,
she treasured, kissed, then ran to tell
of Christ alive in God.

Faith finds, in spirits given worth,
a fertile habitat:
in resurrection, as at birth,
God sings Magnificat.

A woman's faith has testified;
then following her lead,
let all rejoice: Christ crucified
is risen now indeed!

Brian Wren (born 1936)
© 1989 Stainer & Bell Ltd
CM

After darkness, light;
After winter, spring;
After dying, life:
Alleluia!

Take his body down;
Lay it in the tomb;
Love has overcome:
Alleluia!

Turn away in grief;
Turn away in faith;
Celebrate his death:
Alleluia!

Come whatever may,
God will have his way:
Welcome Easter Day!
Alleluia!

Fred Pratt Green 1903–2000
© 1978 Stainer & Bell Ltd
5.5.5.4.

Alleluia! Hear the good news!
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Christ is risen! Alleluia!
Our Lord Jesus now is risen!

Now the three days wait is ended
To the tomb go weeping women:
Chorus

In an upper room, disciples
Hide in fear, as if in prison:
Chorus

At the break of day the women
Hear the good news: 'Christ is risen!'
Chorus

Fear no longer: hear the good news!
Fear no longer! Christ is risen!
Chorus

Jesus goes before to greet you:
Spread the good news: he is risen!
Chorus

Alleluia! Tell the good news:
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Chorus

Don Pickard (born 1941)
© 1993 Stainer & Bell Ltd & The Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes
8.8. and Refrain

Although we go our separate ways
to listen, learn and teach,
keep us together, God, and share
your love with all and each;

and let us hear the news of Christ
so that, when worship's done,
we may be full of Easter-life,
then go, and pass it on!

Fred Kaan (born 1929)
© 1989 Stainer & Bell Ltd
8.6.8.6.

As the glory of creation
and the thrill of human love,
as the wonder at a cradle,
at the things that live and move,
higher still, uncaught in word,
is the glory of the Lord.

As the glory of a concert
and the skill of those who play,
as the joy of book and painting,
shapes in stone and bronze and clay,
higher still, uncaught in word,
is the glory of the Lord.

As the glory of the future
and the teaching of the past,
as the challenge of the present
and the here-and-now of Christ,
higher still, uncaught in word,
is the glory of the Lord.

In the life and work of Jesus,
in his dying on a cross,
in the great surprise of Easter
giving people gain for loss,
here we catch and taste the Word
spelling glory to the Lord!

Fred Kaan (born 1929)
© 1985 Stainer & Bell Ltd
8.7.8.7.7 7.

Choir of new Jerusalem,
With all joys
Raise your voice,
Sing aloud the Easter hymn.

Christ our Lion, Victor, Head!
See him rise
To the skies,
Crushed the serpent, raised the dead!

Hell has given up its prey.
Liberty
Make us free;
Millions follow Jesus' way.

Christ has triumphed gloriously.
He has given
Earth and heaven
Into one community.

Through the endless course of days,
To the One,
Father, Son,
Holy Spirit, be our praise.

Chorus novae Jerusalem by Saint Fulbert of Chartres (c.960-1028) translated by John Ferguson (1921-1989)
© 1990 Stainer & Bell Ltd.
7.3 3.7. Trochaic

Christ crucified now is alive.
Gates of freedom open wide.
Gravestones shatter and despair takes flight
as the godforsaken is bathed in light.

Love conquers Law. Grace now has grown
flowers to crack its earth and stone:
Guilt dissolves and walls are broken down.
Sinners welcome sinners and the lost are found.

Justice and Peace walk hand in hand.
Jesus brings a new command:
Love your oppressors, and resist them too,
Set them free to celebrate God's hope with you.

Red in the west rises the sun;
Love turns all creation upside down.
Hills and mountains skip like lambs
and the clouds and continents are clapping their hands.

Brian Wren (born 1936)
© 1983 Stainer & Bell Ltd

Christ is alive! Let Christians sing.
The cross stands empty to the sky.
Let streets and homes with praises ring.
Love, drowned in death, shall never die.

Christ is alive! No longer bound
to distant years in Palestine,
but saving, healing, here and now,
and touching every place and time.

In every insult, rift and war,
where colour, scorn or wealth divide,
Christ suffers still, yet loves the more,
and lives, where even hope has died.

Women and men, in age and youth,
can feel the Spirit, hear the call,
and find the way, the life, the truth,
revealed in Jesus, freed for all.

Christ is alive, and comes to bring
good news to this and every age,
till earth and sky and ocean ring
with joy, with justice, love and praise.

Brian Wren (born 1936)
© 1969, 1995 Stainer & Bell Ltd
LM

Christ is risen, Christ is living,
dry your tears, be unafraid!
Death and darkness could not hold him,
nor the tomb in which he lay.
Do not look among the dead for
one who lives for evermore;
tell the world that Christ is risen,
make it known he goes before.

1AChrist is risen, Christ is living,
dry your tears, be unafraid!
Death and darkness could not hold him,
nor the tomb in which he laid.
Do not look among the dead for
one who lives for evermore;
tell the world that Christ is risen,
make it known he goes before.

If the Lord had never risen,
we'd have nothing to believe.
But his promise can be trusted:
'You will live, because I live'.
As we share the death of Adam,
so in Christ we live again;
death has lost its sting and terror,
Christ is down to earth to reign.

2AIf the Lord had never risen,
we'd have nothing to believe.
But his promise can be trusted:
'You will live, because I live'.
As we share the death of Adam,
so in Christ we live again;
death has lost its sting and terror,
Christ the Lord has come to reign.

Death has lost its old dominion,
let the world rejoice and shout!
Christ the first-born of the living,
gives us life and leads us out.
Let us thank our God who causes
hope to spring up from the ground;
Christ is risen, Christ is giving
life eternal, life profound.

Christo vive by Nicolas Martinez (fl. 1960) translated by Fred Kaan (born 1929)
English translation © 1974 Stainer & Bell Ltd
8.7.8.7.D. Trochaic

Christ is risen! Shout Hosanna!
Celebrate this day of days!
Christ is risen! Hush in wonder:
all creation is amazed.
In the desert all-surrounding,
see, a spreading tree has grown.
Healing leaves of grace abounding
bring a taste of love unknown.

Christ is risen! Raise your spirits
from the caverns of despair.
Walk with gladness in the morning.
See what love can do and dare.
Drink the wine of resurrection,
not a servant, but a friend.
Jesus is our strong companion.
Joy and peace shall never end.

Christ is risen! Earth and heaven
nevermore shall be the same.
Break the bread of new creation
where the world is still in pain.
Tell its grim, demonic chorus:
'Christ is risen! Get you gone!'
God the First and Last is with us.
Sing Hosanna everyone!

Brian Wren (born 1936)
© 1986 Stainer & Bell Ltd
8 7 8 7 D.

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