Events

WEDDING SERVICE

Copyright Copyright information is given below each text and MUST be included in any hymn sheets produced. The bride and groom, or those renewing their marriage vows may print the words in an order of service on payment of £10.00 plus VAT. Send a cheque for £11.75 made payable to 'Stainer & Bell Ltd' to PO Box 110, Victoria House, 23 Gruneisen Road, London N3 1DZ stating what is to be used and where the service is to take place. A receipted licence/invoice will be sent by return of post.

Wedding Gala for Organ

[Love]
As man and woman we were made
that love be found and life begun:
the likeness of the living God,
unique, yet called to live as one.
Through joy or sadness, calm or strife,
come, praise the love that gives us life.

[Joy]
Now Jesus lived and gave his love
to make our life and loving new
so celebrate with him today
and drink the joy he offers you
that makes the simple moment shine
and changes water into wine.

[Hope]
And Jesus died to live again
so praise the love that, come what may,
can bring the dawn and clear the skies,
and waits to wipe all tears away
and let us hope for what shall be
believing where we cannot see.

[Peace]
Then spread the table, clear the hall
and celebrate till day is done;
let peace go deep between us all
and joy be shared by everyone:
laugh and make merry with your friends
and praise the love that never ends!

Brian Wren (born 1936)
© 1983 Stainer & Bell Ltd
8.8.8.8.8.8.

Crown with love, Lord, this glad day,
Love to humble and delight,
Love which until death will stay;
Love to taste the depth and height,
Of that love which took our part,
Spendthrift in its generous art.

Lord, give joy on this glad day,
Joy to face life's hurt and ill,
All that tests the wedded way
Forging union deeper still:
Joy like his who, for our gain,
Lightly weighed the Cross and pain.

Crown with peace, Lord, this glad day,
Peace the world may not invent
Nor misfortune strip away:
Partners, in your will content,
Knowing love will never cease
From its source, who is our Peace.

Ian M Fraser (born 1917)
© 1969 Stainer & Bell Ltd
7 7. 7 7. 7 7.

'Come, and celebrate a feast!
Fill your cup with love and joy!
Come to a wedding; be our guest!
In Cana, in Galilee.'

Mary, with the wedding guests,
Finds that all the wine has failed,
But Jesus, from the water jars,
Draws new wine, so all are filled!

Bless'd be God the Holy One,
God of Glory, God of Grace!
Creator of both bride and groom -
Of friendship, love, joy and peace!

Don Pickard (born 1941)
© 1993 Stainer & Bell Ltd & The Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes
7.7.8.7. Trochaic

There is a love which keeps
in faith from year to year,
and though it laughs for joy or weeps,
persists through hope and fear.

This is the love which feels
earth's pain and enmity,
but through adversity reveals
its own integrity.

This is the love which binds
to duty, and which might
prove irksome, but by patience finds
in duty its delight.

It is the love which dares
to trust in spite of tears;
through all the peace or pain it shares
it deepens with the years.

This love that holds us fast
through all the world can do,
will, when this changeful life is past,
be proved more surely true.

So, God of love, we trace
your love through all our days,
whose everlasting joy and grace
inspire our endless praise.

Alan Gaunt (born 1935)
© 2002 Stainer & Bell Ltd.
SM

Come, let us all renew the vows
That bind us to the Lord:
The vows in childhood made for us
By those who loved and cared:
The vows that mark discipleship
In eager youth or age;
And covenants that yearly chart
Our life-long pilgrimage.

But chiefly now we call to mind
Those marriage vows we take
Of steadfast love and loyalty,
Each for the other's sake.
Partners for life, let us renew
These strong and tender ties,
For loyalty is not enough,
And love, neglected, dies.

Come, let us trust our loving God,
Who cleanses mind and heart
Of ills that wreck our private lives,
And tear the world apart:
Who bids us, in the day's affairs,
Pursue God's perfect way,
And build, with true fidelity,
That world for which we pray.

Fred Pratt Green 1903-2000
© 1989 Stainer & Bell Ltd.
D.C.M.

One more step along the world I go,
One more step along the world I go.
From the old things to the new
Keep me travelling along with you.
And it's from the old I travel to the new.
Keep me travelling along with you.

Round the corners of the world I turn,
More and more about the world I learn.
All the new things that I see
You'll be looking at along with me.
Chorus

As I travel through the bad and good
Keep me travelling the way I should.
Where I see no way to go
You'll be telling me the way, I know.
Chorus

Give me courage when the world is rough,
Keep me loving though the world is tough.
Leap and sing in all I do,
Keep me travelling along with you.
Chorus

You are older than the world can be,
You are younger than the life in me.
Ever old and ever new,
Keep me travelling along with you.
Chorus

Sydney Carter (1915-2004)
© 1971 Stainer & Bell Ltd.
9 9.7 9. & Refrain

I danced in the morning
When the world was begun,
And I danced in the moon
And the stars and the sun,
And I came down from heaven
And I danced on the earth,
At Bethlehem
I had my birth.
Dance, then, wherever you may be,
I am the Lord of the Dance, said he,
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be,
And I'll lead you all in the Dance, said he.

I danced for the scribe
And the pharisee,
But they would not dance
And they wouldn't follow me.
I danced for the fishermen,
For James and John -
They came with me
And the Dance went on.
Chorus

I danced on the Sabbath
And I cured the lame;
The holy people
Said it was a shame.
They whipped and they stripped
And they hung me on high,
And they left me there
On a Cross to die.
Chorus

I danced on a Friday
When the sky turned black -
It's hard to dance
With the devil on your back.
They buried my body
And they thought I'd gone,
But I am the Dance,
And I still go on.
Chorus

They cut me down
And I leapt up high;
I am the life
That'll never, never die;
I'll live in you
If you'll live in me -
I am the Lord
Of the Dance, said he.
Chorus

Sydney Carter (1915-2004)
© 1963 Stainer & Bell Ltd
10 10.10 10. (very irregular) & Refrain

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