| Written for the annual
Candle Day Service in 2000 at S. Michael & All Angels,
Christchurch, NZ, this hymn reminds us of individuals and
groups in society who have named injustice with prophetic
courage and confronted the abuse of power by people in authority.
We honour their 'truth to power', a term associated with George
Fox (1624-91), the visionary founder of the Religious Society
of Friends (Quakers).
The parish's Amnesty
International Group organises the service. Secondary school
students present short plays about various injustices, including
prisoners of conscience who are detained without trial.
Amnesty's theme throughout 2000 was torture, so the last
two lines of the refrain affirm: 'Your torturers are thwarted
/ Your torturers subverted!'.
John the Baptist's piety
was dangerous because the new order he preached and practised
subverted the authorities of his day, implicitly and explicitly.
He accepted the price of martyrdom. In verse two, the Hebrew
term 'Anawim' refers to those on the margins of society,
particularly the meek, lowly, and afflicted, who are forgotten
by the powerful, but never by God.
Minor chords in the
verses bring out their dark tonality. Major chords and a
faster tempo in the refrain convey a sense of hope and dignity
in the midst of suffering. The harmonies by Chris Graham,
a piano teacher of Christchurch, tie both together.
|
