This is an unusual wedding hymn, in that it affirms both the couple making their vows and the loving relationships of all those present at the ceremony. It is both a love song and a prayer by people be they married or single, heterosexual or gay, young and old, or none of these.

This dance has a powerful ‘union of opposites’. It is both dignified and joyful, both restrained and playful. The verse may be sung in parts by a choir and the refrain is sung in unison voices. As in a lot of 17th-century dance music, it has greater rhythmic complexity at the end of the verses and in the refrain, with the use of hemiolas and a vigorous bass-line on the keyboard. It is best played on the piano or harpsichord, rather than on the organ.

The title, ‘Love-Maker God’, comes from an English Anglican poet/priest, Jim Cotter, who was searching for evocative names for God to use in an alternative Lord’s Prayer. His Prayer at night: a book for the darkness, (1983), evokes the triune God as: ‘Life-Giver, Pain-Bearer, Love-Maker’. New Zealand Anglicans were drawn to the freshness of Cotter’s imagery. However their A New Zealand Prayer Book (1989) omitted the Love-Maker from Cotter’s trinitarian formulation.

The focus in the four verses shifts from the couple and the relationships of all present, to our relationships in community, to a hymn of the cosmos (verse 4). So often at weddings, people get caught up in the wonder and see their own lives in a different light, even if fleetingly. For a moment they may have a vision of their lives as embedded in all sorts of other relationships that ripple out across the cosmos. The hymn-text provides images and metaphors that help people draw on these insights in difficult times.

The refrain enjoins those present to: ‘Come, eat, drink and be glad! / May joy be ours on all our mornings.’ This reaches forward in hope for what is to come and also reflects the indeterminacy of life, that we don’t know how many mornings we will have, as individuals and together.

Verse 3 shifts from the past and present to the shared future. Faith and risk-taking is symbolised by the albatross leaving the shore. All couples can ‘dream dreams’ and can be open to that which is larger than themselves and to things beyond what they can see.

This wedding hymn is suitable for services in churches, for ceremonies in outdoor settings and for civil ceremonies in registry offices.

© Jane Simpson (2002)