Hugh Wetmore — Worship Conversation With Hugh

Contemplation on Hymn used at Queen Elizabeth II’s Funeral- Hugh Wetmore

This week I watched the funeral service for Queen Elizabeth II at the majestic Westminster Cathedral.  You probably watched it too. I was impressed with the imaginative choice of a standard evening hymn as the opening congregational song for her funeral — and that vast congregation knew how to sing […]

Peace like a river — Hugh Wetmore

There’s a popular worship song that goes like this:             “I’ve got peace like a river, peace like a river,            I’ve got peace like a river in my soul.            I’ve got peace like a river, peace like a river,            I’ve got peace like a river in my soul.” It is […]

Forever with the Lord! — Hugh Wetmore

These days we hear a lot about death.  Usually in sensational news reports.  21 under-age children found dead in eNyobeni Tavern, Gqeberha.  Farm attacks leave so many dead. Man kills his partner, then himself, and leaves their three children orphans. Robbers with high-calibre firearms storm a township tavern, killing six people. […]

The worship service: then and now — in one lifetime! (3)

In the previous two Worship Columns, we have surveyed the changes in our worship services in the course of a lifetime.  Some changes are neutral, other are harmful. This month we celebrate the positive changes that have been taking place. Let’s identify some contemporary changes that are positively healthy, for […]

The worship service: then and now — in one lifetime! (2)

In my last column I traced the changes that have taken place in the Church’s worship services.  For the most part these were neutral’ changes. They were more superficial cultural changes that did not affect the deeper levels of our Christian being.  We observed movements from formal liturgies to freer […]