Monthly Theme: Vision
Sermon Topic: Women of Vision
Choir: Women’s Choir

“The March of the Women”
Music: Ethel Smyth
Text: Cicely Hamilton

Shout, shout, up with your song!
Cry with the wind, for the dawn is breaking;
March, march, swing you along,
Wide blows our banner, and hope is waking.
Song with its story, dreams with their glory
Hear the voice, oh hear and obey
Forward! Beckon us on,
Open your eyes to the blaze of day!

Comrades—ye who have dared
First in the battle to strive and sorrow!
Scorned, spurned—nought have ye cared,
Raising your eyes to a wider morrow,
Firm in reliance, laugh a defiance
(Laugh in hope, for sure is the end)
March, march, many as one,
Shoulder to shoulder and friend to friend!

“Soujourner’s Battle Hymn”
Music: Bernice Johnson Reagon
Text: Sojourner Truth

Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah, as we go marching on.

We are the valiant soldiers who’ve enlisted for the war;
We are fighting for the Union, we are fighting for the law;
We can shoot a rebel farther than a white man ever saw,
As we go marching on.

Look there above the center, where the flag is waving bright;
We are going out of slavery, we are bound for freedom’s light;
We mean to show Jeff Davis how the Africans can fight,
As we go marching on

They will have to pay us wages, the wages of their sin;
They will have to bow their foreheads to their colored kith and kin;
They will have to give us house-room, or the roof will tumble in,
As we go marching on

Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah, as we go marching on.

“O Ignis Spiritus Paracliti”
Music: Hildegard von Bingen
Text: Hildegard von Bingen

O ignis spiritus paracliti,
vita vite omnis creature,
sanctus es vivificando formas.

Sanctus es unguendo
periculose fractos,
sanctus es tergendo
fetida vulnera.

O spiraculum sanctitatis,
o ignis caritatis,
o dulcis gustus in pectoribus
et infusio cordium
in bono odore virtutum.

O fons purissime,
in quo consideratur
quod Deus alienos colligit
et perditos requirit.

O iter fortissimum
quo penetravit omnia
in altissimis et in terrenis
et in omnibus abyssis
tu omnes componis et colligis.

De te nubes fluunt, ether volat,
lapides humorem habent,
aque rivulos educunt,
et terra viriditatem sudat.

TRANSLATION:

O fire of the Spirit, the Comforter,
Life of the life of all creation,
Holy are you, giving life to the Forms.

Holy are you, anointing
The dangerously broken;
Holy are you, cleansing
The fetid wounds.

O breath of sanctity,
O fire of charity,
O sweet savor in the breast
And balm flooding hearts
With the fragrance of virtues.

O limpid fountain,
In which it is seen
How God gathers the strays
And seeks out the lost

O mighty course
That penetrated all,
In the heights, upon the earth,
And in all abysses:
You bind and gather all people together.

From you clouds overflow, winds take wing,
Stones store up moisture,
Waters well forth in streams —
And earth swells with living green.

“In Your Hands”
Music: Abbie Betinis
Text: Eleanor Roosevelt and Eric Bartlett

I am here on behalf of thirty-two national organizations representing millions of citizens — of all faiths; of every complexion; in all parts of the United States. The devotion of so many Americans to human rights is symbolized by this spontaneous and resounding answer to the United Nations’ call for world-wide observances of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We believe that the destiny of human rights is in the hands of all our citizens in all our communities. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Without concerted citizen action to uphold [these rights] close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world. Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home — so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any map of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person: the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere.

Where do human rights begin?
Not in a corporate boardroom,
Not from a lawmaker’s pen,
Nor from a thundering gavel
Judging our women and men.

Where do human rights begin?
…in your hands, in your hands
In the hands of every citizen.
…in your hands, in your hands
Unless these rights have meaning there,
They have little meaning anywhere.
Where do human rights begin?
In your hands.

Hands clasp hands in greeting
In factory, school and field.
In small places close to Home,
Our pact of Love is sealed.

One of the fundamental human rights is freedom for the individual. Freedom can never be absolute because it must be consistent with the freedom of others. Everyone’s liberty is conditioned by the rights of other people. (5) But the more observance there is of human rights – the more freedom the individual will have.

Freedom can never be absolute,
It must align with the freedom of others.
When Liberty rings from a broken Bell
It must be forged anew, to ring out true
For all our sisters and brothers…

Reach across the barriers,
Through the spaces that divide
To grasp the hands of strangers
And become a rising tide.

May you go forth with courage, persistence and joy,
Faith in the future no fear can destroy,
With a purpose that’s pure and good, with a strength beyond your own,
May you always be striving for something you can’t do alone. (8)

See the icy ramparts melt
When our hands embrace.
Throw open wide the steely doors
Rend the thawing gates!

“Chapo Pou Fanm” (“Hats off to Women”)
Music: Sydney Guillaume
Text: Louis Marie Celestin

Pou tout fanm ki batay nan listwa tout peyi
Pou nou menm jodi’-a ak tout sa k’ap vini
Chapo, chapo! Bravo, bravo!
An nou rele Bravo

Se nan nannan nou ke Wa soti,
Nan vant nou ke Prezidan fleri,
Nou ekilibre demokrasi,
N’ape lite jouk sa fini!

N’ape lite ouk sa fini,
Pou nou fe la jistis blayi,
Pou sa chanje nan tout peyi,
Pou lavi-a ka souri.

Pandan de siek you t’ap soufri,
Yo bouche nen bwe dlo santi
Men yon bon jou yo revolte
Pou yo chanje limanite.

An’ Azi, an’ Amerik,
An’ Erop tankou Afrik,
Koud’ a koud tout fanm kanpe,
Men dan la men pou sa chanje...

Chapo, chapo! Chapo pou fanm!

TRANSLATION:

For all women who fought in the history of all countries,
For all of us now and all the ones to come,
Hats off, hats off! Bravo, bravo!
Let us shout Hooray!

It is inside us that Kings are made,
In our bellies that Presidents blossom,
We balance out democracy,
And we will fight until the end!

We will fight until the end,
To spread around justice,
To bring a change to all countries,
To bring a smile to life.

For centuries they have suffered,
Pinched their nose to drink smelly water,
But one fine day they revolted
So they could change Humanity.

In Asia, in America,
In Europe like in Africa,
Elbow to elbow all women rose,
Hand in hand to bring a change…

Hats off, hats off, hats off to women