Welcoming our Guest Musicians for Community Ministry Sunday!
This week we are excited to welcome two returning guests back to Grace, hymnwriters Adam Tice and Sally Ann Morris! Adam and Sally are in town as clinicians for Writing the Church's Song, a retreat at Richmond Hill for beginning and intermediate hymn writers to work with professionals, honing their craft. Much of the music we’ve sung by Theresa and myself was worked on at this very retreat, that we are so fortunate to have in our own city. 1
Text writer, Adam Tice was last here in 2019, leading some of Grace’s own hymnwriters in workshops. He is an accomplished writer, as well as the editor for congregational song at GIA Publications. Tune writer Sally Ann Morris was most recently here leading us in worship in 2022. She is Musician-in-Residence for the Wake Forest University School of Divinity in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and recently published a set of morning, noon, and evening prayers our choir sang to shape our all-day workshop together this Summer. Adam and Sally’s music have helped shape our worship often. 2
Sally Ann Morris and Adam M.L. Tice
Adam and Sally’s music often comes together at the intersection of mission and justice, so it is fortuitous that they would be in town for our Community Ministries focused Sunday. Even if they weren’t here, we would likely be singing their music, and now we get to be led by them in it! This will include two hymns that are new to Grace that I invite you to listen to and read so you are ready to join us in singing this Sunday.
Thank you for joining me in welcoming Adam and Sally back to Grace, as we worship together and listen for the work God is calling us to. I leave you with the words of another Adam Tice hymn that we have sung often, and will use to close worship this week 3:
1 The church of Christ cannot be bound
by walls of wood or stone.
Where charity and love are found
there can the church be known.
2 True faith will open up the door
and step into the street.
True service will seek out the poor
and ask to wash their feet.
3 True love will not sit idly by
when justice is denied.
True mercy hears the homeless cry
and welcomes them inside.
4 If what we have we freely share
to meet our neighbor's need,
then we extend the Spirit's care
through every selfless deed.
5 The church of Christ cannot be bound
by walls of wood or stone.
Where charity and love are found,
there can the church be known.
1 These recently included Chris’s tune, LOFTIS, which we sang July 12th
https://www.youtube.com/live/ZS-etoQKrxU?si=0sqpWs6MgrBz1q5Z&t=1434
and Through the Darkness by Theresa, which we sang last Advent.
https://www.youtube.com/live/f3VsMhKI6pM?si=eWs5WhCL52lxOKMz&t=1601
2 Adam and Sally’s hymn, When Pain and Sorrow are too Much to Bear (HOLD ON), has been a source of comfort a few times, most recently in 2025
https://www.youtube.com/live/q_-tSnVcsWc?si=EoJ_Kxeh031O6zDh&t=2216
3 https://www.youtube.com/live/IB20bRNin2w?si=PWz1bUg43ev5pBco&t=3586