Sunday, March 27, 2005

the very unfortunate litany of 'saints' from the easter vigil at the church where i work

[I mean please: John Denver! Really! But my hands were tied.]

Holy Mary, Mother of God: Come, rejoice with us!

Abraham and Sarah: Come, rejoice with us!
Moses and Elijah: Come, rejoice ... etc.
Miriam and Esther:
Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel:
John the Baptist, Sim-e-on and Anna:
All you holy people of Israel:

Peter, Paul and James:
John, Thomas, Mary and Martha:
Simon of Cy-REE-nee, Joseph of Ar-i-ma-THEE-a:
Philip, Bar-na-bas, Pris-cil-la and A-QUILL-a:
Lydia, Dorcas and Phoebe:
All you holy Apostles:

Stephen, POLy-carp and Per-PET-u-a:
Thomas More, William TYNN-dale:
DEET-rich BON-huf-fer, Abraham Lincoln:
Martin Luther King, Stephen BEE-ko:
Thomas Becket, Oscar Ro-MER-o:
Jonathan Daniels, Matthew Shepard:
All you holy Martyrs:

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John:
Clement and Ath-a-NAY-sius:
Patrick and Co-LUM-ba:
Thomas A-QUI-nas, Catherine of Si-e-na:
Henry NOW-wen, Thomas Merton:
C. S. Lewis, Rein-hold NEE-bur:
All you holy Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers:

Giot-to and Rembrandt:
Johann Sebastian Bach, Jo-han-nes Brahms:
Dante A-li-ghier-i, Hil-de-gard of BING-en:
John Bunyan, John Milton, William Blake:
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Emily Dickinson:
Isaac Watts, John Mason Neale:
Duke Ellington, James Weldon Johnson:
Red Barber, Jackie Robinson, Roberto Cle-MEN-te:
Eleanor Far-jeon, Fred Rogers:
Minnie Pearl, Ma-ha-lia Jackson, John Denver:
All you holy Artists and Performers:

Francis and Clare:
Be-ne-dict and SER-gi-us:
John WYCK-liffe, Martin Luther:
George Fox, Roger Williams:
John and Charles Wesley, Absalom Jones:
Ig-NA-tius Loy-o-la, William Booth:
Dorothy Day, Mother Teresa:
All you holy renewers of the Church:

Florence Nightingale, Clara Barton:
Doro-the-a Dix, Jane Addams:
Frederick Douglass, Prudence Cran-dall:
W.E.B. Du-BOYCE, Elizabeth Cady Stan-ton:
Harriet Tubman, Mother Jones, Say-zar CHA-vez:
Corrie Ten Boom, An-dré Troc-mé:
Ryan White, Benjamin Spock, Rachel Carson:
All you holy renewers of society:


ALL THOSE WE LOVE who have gone before us:

O all you holy saints together: Come, rejoice with us!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

My favorite is Minnie Pearl. I hope there was some process of nomination. Although, I wonder how Arius and Origen, Simone Weil, Tony Campolo and Bono could have failed to make the list. I personally would have nominated Kanye West: "Je-Sus walks!!!"

~BFC

Anonymous said...

Thanks, I really like lists of names. It reminds me of the calming effects of the first chapters of Chronicles.

Heath,
P.S. Hehe, guess I am an OT nerd :)

Ecgbert said...

John Denver was a nice fellow who wrote some pretty good songs - the unofficial anthem of West Virginia for example - but yes, the litany is awful. Perfect example of Broad Church (Unitarian in vestments) belief in nothing therefore everything, or 'Ai yi yi are they confused!'

Simone Weil wasn't PC enough - she actually believed in the Catholic faith in her eccentric way.

The litany reminds me of something I heard done at evensong at Ripon College Cuddesdon about 15 years ago. Hard to believe Cuddesdon used to be Anglo-Catholic!

Anonymous said...

You're kidding: Fred Rogers?!

"It's a beautiful day for an EAS-ter vigil, a beautiful day for a baptism, won't you be mine, won't you be mine?...."

All I can say is, I guess they're setting the bar awfully low these days. And Benjamin Spock? The Doctor Spock who decided kid's couldn't handle real discipline and ruined our public school system, not to mention the American family? by all means, put him in there.