Honoring Black History Month: a GPPC Hymn Sing

A hymn sing can be a history lesson, a prayer meeting, and a freedom school all at once. We gathered to honor Black History Month by lifting African American spirituals out of the margins and into the center, pairing each song with the stories and scriptures that shaped it. With piano, liturgy, and rich context, we traced how melodies carried maps, how verses held warnings, and how worship became a language of survival.

We start with Kumbaya, reclaiming its Gullah meaning—come by here—as a serious plea for God’s nearness. From there, Go Down Moses reframes Exodus as a protest anthem, echoing along Underground Railroad routes and invoking Harriet Tubman’s courage. The set moves through companionship-in-sorrow songs like I Want Jesus to Walk With Me and Guide My Feet, where call and response turns the room into a convoy of care. Along the way, we dig into the oral tradition that kept these hymns flexible and alive, explaining why rhythms and words shift across regions and years.

Midway, My Lord, What a Morning opens a window on apocalyptic hope that doubles as a liberation vision, while reflections on radical welcome root hospitality in love of neighbor. Lord, Make Us More Holy becomes a sung prayer for character that can carry the work. Balm in Gilead answers Jeremiah’s ache with healing and courage, and Were You There invites reverent witness to the cross and the rising. By the closing charge, we’re holding a clear throughline: honor the past, live awake in the present, and build for a freer future with God’s help.

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Transcript

Welcome & Black History Month Focus

SPEAKER_04 0:00

The time has come. Greetings, everybody. Thank you for being here. The worship committee listened to my suggestion that we uh honor Black History Month with a hymn sing of the songs that are in our hymn that are were uh designated to be the African American uh composers. Or so that's what we're here for. It's a tribute to those composers that are unknown to us. In the book, but not known. So Ellen Bryant is gonna be our liturgist and song leader, or Jordan Hart is on the piano, and Anthony McLean is gonna give us a little historical background on some of these things.

Kumbaya: Origins And Meaning

SPEAKER_01 0:57

I wanted to begin our reading from the time. When you are filled with the fear, when you are empowered with the thought with your heart. Please join me as we sing cumby god. The words cumby god mean come by here. So we're gonna sing it through twice. The first time we're gonna say cumbye, and the second time we're gonna say come by here.

unknown 2:08

Come by here, come by here by here, come by here, come by here, come by here.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

Now Anthony's gonna tell us a little bit about our next one, which we might know as Go Down Moses, but is titled When Egypt, When Israel Was in Egypt's land.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

Welcome. Go Down Moses, often known by its opening line, When Israel Was in Egypt's land, is a powerful African-American spiritual and hidden transcript from the Underground Railroad era used to signal the desire for freedom. It draws parallels between the biblical exodus and the enslavement of African Americans, serving as a song of resistance, hope, and in some cases a warning, often associated with Harriet Tubman.

Remembering Ancestors Through Song

In Christ There Is No East Or West

SPEAKER_01 3:32

We will sing verses one and three. So I will lead and I will ask you to follow, and then we'll sing the next. We gather today to remember the stories of those who came before us. We remember their courage, their faith, and their unyielding hope. Let us sing verses one and three of in Christ there is no east or west.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Resilience and coded messages of freedom. It signifies a deep spiritual connection, often interpreted as the Holy Spirit, which brings hope and comfort in the face of suffering.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

I want Jesus to walk with me.

SPEAKER_00 9:11

It highlights Jesus as a present, comforting guide rather than a distant figure rather than a distant figure, often associated with the hardships of the underground.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

Such a beautiful hand, so mournful and beautiful.

SPEAKER_04 10:57

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Yes. Join me in this response, and we will say guide my feet. They walk.

SPEAKER_03 11:12

We walk in very second verse, we say, Stand by me instead of guide my feet.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

That's written at the top of the first those two verses.

SPEAKER_00 13:00

Likely emerging from the Gullah and Geechee slave culture. It served as a coded secret song for forbidden meetings, often sung on knees at dawn, symbolizing both Christian communion and unity and suffering. It was formally published in nineteen twenty-five.

Peace Like A River

SPEAKER_01 14:59

Please join me in this letter. Their legacy shapes our present and inspires our future. Let us sing verse one and three of I've got peace like a river.

SPEAKER_03 15:35

I've got peace by the river. I've got peace like the river in my soul. I've got peace.

SPEAKER_01 16:42

One of my favorites, Anthony. Coming up next.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

I'm going to live so God can use me as a traditional African American spiritual, likely originating from enslaved people in the United States, that emphasize living a life of service to God. Anytime, anywhere. It has been an enduring song of faith with a 1928 recording by the blind Danny Harris and his wife.

Oral Tradition And Variations

SPEAKER_01 17:26

We had a recording of the song by the original singers before their own. And so that we have some actual first person recordings of some of these songs. What a blessing. What a blessing. We're going to sing verse one and four. And because most of these hymns were shared orally before they were written down, we all know a lot of different versions of them. You know, slightly different rhythm, slightly different wording. And when it's written down in hand, you know, it's got to be done that way. But sometimes I'm a little confused by earlier wording of it in a different way. And he's got to tell us about my lord.

My Lord, What A Morning

Radical Welcome And Love

SPEAKER_00 23:50

My lord, what a morning. Or a morning. It's a traditional African American spiritual originating in the pre-Civil War era, likely created by enslaved people in the South, or free people in the North before 1867. It combines biblical imagery of the apocalypse with themes of liberation, featuring a call and response structure that signifies both deep hope for freedom and the sorrow of bondage. During a period of the 19th century, the song features themes of faith, and according to historic historian Diana Butler Bass, encourages a radical welcome to the stranger. Jesus, rooted in the biblical call to love.

Lord, Make Us More Holy

There Is A Balm In Gilead

SPEAKER_01 28:37

God calls us to be a people of love. We answer that power by the spirit. Join me as we sing two verses, the first two verses of the Lord make us more holy. Anthony's gonna share a little bit about There's a Bomb in Gilead.

SPEAKER_00 30:04

There is a Bomb in Gilead to heal the sensic soul. As we have been taught in classes and Sunday school, spirituals often make reference to biblical passages. Bomb and Gilead in particular centers around a text from Jeremiah 822 about hoping and longing before they are playing. The reason why the Negroes and the only thing he was a loud thing, verses one and two of There is a long Iliad.

SPEAKER_01 33:17

And it'll give us a little information about that.

SPEAKER_00 33:36

Were you there when they crucified my lord? It's a profound nineteenth-century African-American spiritual, likely originating from enslaved people in the South. First published in 1899. It was the first spiritual to be included in a major American hymnal in 1940. The hymn invites believers to emotionally and spiritually witness the crucifixion and the resurrection.

Honoring Past, Present, Future

SPEAKER_01 34:14

Oh, excuse me, one and five. But in particular, we're going to amortize the past, living in the present, and building for the future.

SPEAKER_03 36:58

With God's help, we will change the hope and the light for generations to come.

SPEAKER_01 37:44

What a joy.

Closing Thanks

SPEAKER_04 37:54

So anyway, we we were trying to squeeze it into the program, but uh she she'll pray next time. Thank you for being here.