In honor of Black History Month, the Saint Peter Family Ministries and Faith In Action teams found a few videos to share during the February 14th worship service. In this article, you’ll find them as well.

Starting with a video shared during the children’s message which shows author Kwame Alexander reading from his book The Undefeated. The second video is the worship service. If you fast forward to the 10-minute 13-second mark, you’ll hear Miss Mary’s comments about The Undefeated (along with the same Kwame Alexander reading).

Sacred Song

African men and women brought sacred songs and chants that reminded them of their homelands when they were brought to the Americas.  These songs reminded them of their homelands and sustained them in separation and captivity.  They are songs that respond to all life situations and new songs were created to answer new needs they experienced.  African Americans in sacred song preserved the African religious rites and symbols, of holistic African spirituality, of rhythms and tones and harmonics that communicated their deepest feelings across barriers of region and language.  

The song we started worship with on Sunday, February 14th was “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,”  which has been known as the Black national anthem for more than 100 years.  It was adopted by the NAACP as its official song back in 1919.  The song started off as a poem by James Weldon Johnson, a writer and activist from Jacksonville, Florida.  His brother John set it to music and it was then performed in 1900 to commemorate Abraham Lincoln’s birthday.  The hymn is a tribute to the American journey of black people, for their selfless sacrifices and their enduring resilience. But the song is universal and speaks for the struggles of all people, the struggles of the human condition.  It is a song of faith and hope. This is the video shown during worship on February 14th. (The son lyrics follow.)

We also heard Jonah Hass’ very talented rendition of “Amazing Grace”. This song was not composed by African Americans but is closely tied to the history of slavery.  The composer, John Newton, wrote the words from his personal experience. He was a slave trader that during a violent storm at sea called out to God for mercy, marking his spiritual transformation.  He eventually quit slave training and began studying Christian theology, later becoming an abolitionist.   “Amazing Grace” was first heard publicly on New Year’s Day to illustrate one of his sermons. It is a powerful message that forgiveness and redemption are possible regardless of sins committed and the soul can be delivered from despair through the mercy of God. It has become one of the most famous folk hymns of all time. Here’s the video that was shown during worship.

Lift Every Voice and Sing Lyrics

Lift ev’ry voice and sing,
‘Til earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the list’ning skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on ’til victory is won.

Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
‘Til now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.