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RESOURCES - Share & Share Alike!
This page is a collection of poems, readings, songs & meditations which we have used in our Gatherings.
We present them here in the hope that they may be of use to other individuals and groups
in the expression of their own spirituality and journeys.
Some of them are original pieces by members of the fellowship, whilst others are resources garnered from the internet (in which cases we try to cite the authors, URLs etc.)
If you use any of them, please visit the author's site (and maybe subscribe/buy a copy as appropriate?)
Songs (written 'scores' & MP3 backing tracks)
Chants
Poetry
Short Readings
Longer Readings & Articles
Gathering Programs
SONGS ('Scores' and some backing tracks)
(A note about backing tracks. Most of them have one complete time through as an 'intro'.
Some also have an extra short phrase before/between verses).
- A Core of Silence - Meditation on space, silence & beginnings (MP3 backing)
- A Rose in the Winter - 'and I'll bring you hope'... by Carolyn McDade (MP3 backing )
- A World of Wonder - above us, below us & inside us. To a famous hymn tune (MP3 backing)
- Bells Of Norwich - 'all shall be well again, I know' Mother Julian's wisdom (MP3 backing)
- Blue Boat Home - A song about the journey of life. Words by Peter Mayer (UUA) to the lovely Welsh tune 'Hyfrydol' (Cheerfulness). (MP3 backing)
- Brother Sun & Sister Moon - Francis of Assissi's canticle
to the tune of 'Ye Banks & Braes'. (MP3 backing ) - Change - 'the only constant in our lives...' by W Songsmith (MP3 backing)
- Chants for the Seasons - Spring & Summer Belletini/Czech folk melody (MP3 backing)
- Children of the Universe - John Andrew Storey's words to a tune by W. Songsmith (Mp3 backing)
- Chinese Morning Song - 'golden breaks the dawn...' (MP3 backing)
- Come by the Hills - A beautifully evocative 'Celtic' song. (also available in a lower key).
- Compassion - based on words by the Dalai Lama. (MP3 backing)
- Dark of Winter - a positive view of winter & darkness. (MP3 backing)
- Far Rolling Voices - a song of the Sea to the tune of 'Ye Banks & Braes'. (MP3 Backing)
- Give Thanks - a Harvest Home song. (MP3 backing)
- I am Life - Hildegard of Bingen's words set to a tune by Josquin Desprez. ( MP3 backing)
- I Held the Planets - a song of travelling & returning home (MP3 backing)
- Imagine - John Lennon's vision of Peace, Justice and Humanism.
- John Barleycorn - to the same ancient folk tune as 'We Plough The Fields And Scatter', but offers a very different take on Harvest - sacrificial death & resurrection and life-giving 'blood'. (MP3 backing)
- Kore - Starhawk's celebration of the Goddess. ' She changes ev'rything she touches...' (MP3 backing)
- Labyrinth - 'the path is sure but never straight...' by W.Songsmith. (MP3 backing)
- Life is a Forest - Trad. Chinese tune. 'web of life, may this thread I weave...' (MP3 backing)
- Look at the Hillside - a celebration of Autumn to the traditional Gaelic tune more often sung to 'Morning has Broken'. (MP3 backing)
- Moods of Summer - S.H.Knight's evocation of Summer to an 'appalachian' style tune. (MP3 backing)
- O Tannenbaum - German Yule song in praise of the Fir tree (MP3 backing)
- Ode To Joy - Beethoven's celebratory fourth movement of his 9th Symphony combined with Friedrich Schiller's hymn to the Goddess. (No 327 in 'Singing the Living Tradition'). (MP3 backing)
- Peace Like a River - Gospel Rocker (MP3 Backing)
- Radhe Govinda Bolo - A Dance of Universal Peace by Philip O'Donohue (MP3 backing)
- Simple Gifts - classic Shaker song, with an added verse promoting gender inclusivity. (MP3 backing)
- Spring Has Now Unveiled the Flowers - a celebration of Spring. (MP3 backing)
- Song of Peace - sung to a theme from Sibelius' majestic 'Finlandia'.
Two of the verses written by LUF member Chris Morley (MP3 backing) - Song of the Soul - Cris Williamson's joyful singalong - 'dancing along in the madness' (MP3 backing)
- The Eternal Now - 'past & future ever meet in the Eternal Now'
to tune of 'How Can I keep From Singing' (MP3 backing) - The Holly & The Ivy - Yule/Solstice song 'restored' to its Pagan roots! (MP3 backing)
- Wake Now My Senses - 'and hear the Earth call...' (MP3 backing)
- Web Of Life - 'to reconnect must be our goal...' Eco-song by W,Songsmith (MP3 backing)
- When the Daffodils Arrive - Another song of Spring (MP3 backing)
- Winds be Still - Mindful words by Richard Kimball,
set to a 'meditative' tune by W.Songsmith (MP3 backing) - Wondrous Love (aka 'O my Soul') - a song with obvious Celtic origins from the American 'Shape-Note' tradition, and here 'restored' to a slower Celtic feel. (MP3 backing track )
CHANTS
These have been arranged for 'average voices' - Many arrangements are pitched too high, so only Sopranos can comfortably sing them, and most men have trouble too (trying to sing them the octave below). Hope you find these are in your 'comfort zone'!
I have credited composers and sources where I am confident to do so. If you know the origin of any uncredited chants (or if you are the composer!) please let me know, and I'll add the credit.
Chants are a living, breathing community resource, and very 'protean' and changeable. I have had some of my chants come back altered, and that's fine - It's an example of memetic selection in the real world. So if I've presented your chant (or one you love) with differences, I hope you don't mind. If you do (or if you think your version works better) please E-mail it to me, and I'll add/change it.
Also, I'd love to recieve other chants to include on this page, so please send 'em in!
*N.B. All the files below are PDFs*
You can also download them all (that is to say all that were on the site as of Oct '07)
in one (big!) PDF file if you like.
- A Salaam - 'peace be with you' - Sufi chant by Nickomo Clarke (MP3 Backing)
- Air I Am
- Armaiti Anahita - a Zoroastrian chant, with the names of the 4 'angels' of the elements
- Beltane Fires
- Fire Child
- Fire Transform Me
- Fires of Beltane
- Full Moonlight Dance
- Green Man
- Greening With Life - Hildegard of Bingen's 'eco-mysticism', and a DUP dance (MP3 backing)
- Hare Krishna - not the version everyone knows. This is slower and more meditative.
- Healing Power
- Herne, Hunter of Souls
- Hold Me - Loving & Freeing (MP3 backing)
- I am a Circle - (MP3 backing also available. NB - It's just a 'drone' to sing along to!)
- I Know This Rose Will Open - self-affirmation & banishing fear (MP3 backing)
- In the Spirit of the Earth
- I Take Delight - A chant of love, peace & togetherness, with a Welsh river in the background, courtesy of Acclivity on the Freesound project (MP3 backing)
- Let the Way Be Open
- Let Peace Encircle All The World
- Many Thousands of Years (aka 'Dancing the Dream Awake')
- May the Long Time Sun - or another version with suggested harmonies. (MP3 backing)
- May the Road Rise With You
- May Your Life Be As A Song (MP3 backing)
- My Soul Will Never Die
- Neesa (Grandmother Moon)
- O Sacred Hour - or O Gift of Love
- Om Namah Shivaya
- Radhe Govinda Bolo - (MP3 backing)
- Rise Up, O Flame
- Samhain (from the 'Year Wheel Chant')
- Shakti Kundalini
- Shalom Haveyreem
- Spiraling Into the Centre
- Spirit of Changes
- Spirits of the East
- Sun & Moon Unite
- Time (aka 'The Wheel Turns')
- The Balance of the Wheel
- The Circle is Open
- The Circle Shapes Us
- The River is Flowing
- The Spark I am
- We All Come from the Goddess
- We Are One (with the Soul of the Earth)
- We Are the Flow
- We Sing to the Wind
- Wearing My Long Wingfeathers
- When We are Gone
- Yuletide Fires - another verse of the 'YearWheel Chant' (MP3 backing)
POETRY
- 'Autobiography In five Short Chapters' by Portia Nelson
- 'Hugging Arms' by Ethan Walker III
- 'Prayer For The Great Turning' by Joanne Sunshower
- 'Roads & Beginnings' by JRR Tolkien (from 'Lord of the Rings')
SHORT READINGS
- Benediction on 'Unity with the Earth' by American UU David Eaton.
- Benediction on 'Dark and Light'.
- Benediction on 'New Beginnings'.
- Chalice Lighting on 'Dark and Light'.
- Chalice Lighting on 'New Beginnings'.
- 'Gaia's Garden' by Whitewolf.
- Krishnamurti on 'Our relationship with nature' - by Peter Galbraith.
- 'Our Differences' - words spoken together (responsive affirmation)(PDF).
- 'The Deep Ecology Platform' - Arnie Naess.
- 'We Are The Light Of The World' - words spoken together (responsive affirmation)
LONGER READINGS & ARTICLES
- 'Balance' - by fellowship member Helen Pettman (thoughts at the Spring Equinox + a reading from Starhawk's 'The Spiral Dance'.
- 'Carpe Diem' Walk - A salutary tale from Sue Berkeley, by Helen
- Divine Feminine - by Helen (including the poem Hugging Arms)
- 'Peace, War & Exploitation' - Helen Keller's speech, by Helen.
- 'Religion Without Fairy Tales, Science with Soul' - a response to Frank Parkinson's book given by Willow at a Leicester Interfaith Forum seminar (31st May 2008).
- 'The Pacifist Position' - by fellowship member Peter Galbraith
- Wheel of the Year - Living as a Unitarian Pagan in a post-Christian world, by Willow Songsmith