Black History Month: John Henry Newton, Part V

I gave a presentation at my church where I portrayed John Henry Newton, the slave ship captain turned Anglican priest and abolitionist who wrote Amazing Grace. Here is Part 4.

No one is really sure of the origins of this tune. Some believe it is of Scottish heritage. Given my background in slave trading, though, I like to think that this tune came to the US on the slave ships and was hummed in the cotton fields until someone caught wind of it decided to publish it.

Wikipedia notes that the text and tune for Amazing Grace has become “Emblematic of the African-American Spiritual.” Emblematic. An emblem is a symbol that represents something. The tiger is an emblem of St. Paul School. The cross is an emblem of Jesus’ suffering and death. Amazing Grace is an emblem of the African-American Spiritual.

It seems my little song lived on well past my life and has been embraced across cultural boundaries and continents. When people here it, it calls to mind the great spirituals of the past. And great gospel singers since then have placed their own twist on it. Mahalia Jackson, Aretha Franklin, and Whitney Houston are just a few.

Gospel singer Wintley Phipps says the tune was written on the “slave scale.” The slave scale is the five-note scale that is comprised of the black keys on the piano. He notes that it is reminiscent of a West African sorrow chant. This gels with my theory that the slaves may have sung the tune in the cotton fields. Wintley notes that any credible source lists me as the author of the text, but “Unknown” is always listed next to the tune. He says, “I tell the Lord that when I get to heaven, I want to meet Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, but boy I sure want to meet that slave called Unknown.”

We are going to sing my song with its familiar tune later in the service. When we do, remember how the Holy Spirit drew me to repentance over my days in the slave trade industry and how a little tune that may have West African roots has inspired generations and cultures throughout the world. It brings new meaning to the verse,

When we’ve been there 10,000 years,

bright shining as the sun,

We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise

Than when we’d first begun.

Thank you and God bless.

Black History Month: John Henry Newton, Part IV

I gave a presentation at my church where I portrayed John Henry Newton, the slave ship captain turned Anglican priest and abolitionist who wrote Amazing Grace. Here is Part 4.

But here in the United States I am not known so much for preaching, or pastoral care, or my work as an abolitionist. I am known as the author of hymns. Some of them are in your hymnal.

• How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds
• Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken
• Come, My Soul, with Ev'ry Care
• On What Has Now Been Sewn

Do you know any of these? Perhaps so, and perhaps not. But perhaps you know my most famous hymn, Amazing Grace. I wrote it as an illustration for a New Year’s sermon. My sermon is long gone, but the hymn has endured. First published in 1779, the hymn really didn’t catch on right away. In England it was hardly ever sung.

In the United States, though, the Second Great Awakening was going on, and my hymn was sung at revivals in the early 1800’s. In 1779, we only published the words. As many as 20 tunes were associated with my hymn. It was not until 1839 that it became associated with the tune “New Britain” here in America. This is the tune that you sing with my hymn today. The tune has been adapted for use in tent meetings, formal church settings, country music concerts, etc. It has been sung a capella, and with accompaniment. It has been arranged for bagpipes, guitar, piano, organ, string quartet, gospel choir … you name it, it’s been done!

Black History Month: John Henry Newton, Part III

I gave a presentation at my church where I portrayed John Henry Newton, the slave ship captain turned Anglican priest and abolitionist who wrote Amazing Grace. Here is Part 3.

I spent 16 years at my first call. Pastoral care and preaching were my specialties. The church had to add on to its structure in order to accommodate those who came to hear me preach.

From there I accepted a call to a parish in London. It was there where I met William Wilberforce. William was a young Member of Parliament and a recent convert to evangelical Christianity. Politics being what they are, William sensed a conflict between his newfound faith and his vocation. I encouraged him to remain in his vocation and serve God right where he was.

It was through William Wilberforce that I began to reconsider my attitude towards slavery and the slave trade industry. You see, I was 25 when I had my conversion experience, but it was not until I was 63 that I published a pamphlet that detailed the horrors of the slave trade industry and repented of my actions so many years ago. The Holy Spirit worked both an initial conversion as well as a continuing renewal throughout my life.

From that time on, I worked with my friend William Wilberforce to abolish slavery in England. Slavery wasn’t just a means to get cheap labor, it was an industry. And undoing an industry is challenging to say the least.

William and I persevered, though. Remember, he was a Member of Parliament. He used his influence there and forged partnerships with many people across England’s many political parties. In 1807 Parliament passed what it called, “An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade.” Today’s history books call it the Slave Trade Act of 1807. That was in March. I passed away in December of that year at the age of 82.

Black History Month: John Henry Newton, Part II

I gave a presentation at my church where I portrayed John Henry Newton, the slave ship captain turned Anglican priest who wrote Amazing Grace. Here is Part 2.

There on the ship back to England I called out to God during a violent storm as the ship filled with water. When the storm calmed I began to read the Bible. By the time the journey had ended the Holy Spirit began working saving faith in me. I gave up drinking, gambling, and profanity.

I still had things to learn, though. I continued to work the slave ships. It was during my next position on these ships that I professed my Christian faith and asked God to control my destiny. I was 25 at the time.

Of course, at such a young age I still thought I knew everything. I continued in the slave trading business until I had a stroke, and even after that I continued to invest in that industry, even though I could no longer sail.

At the age of 30 I became a tax collector at the port of Liverpool. I studied the biblical languages of Greek, Hebrew and Syriac. I was well-known as a lay-preacher, and sought ordination in the Church of England at the age of 32. They rejected me at first. So did the Methodists, Independents and Presbyterians. Finally, at the age of 39, a friend recommended me to a bishop, and the Church of England ordained me after a short vicarage.

Black History Month: John Henry Newton, Part I

I gave a presentation at my church where I portrayed John Henry Newton, the slave ship captain turned Anglican priest who wrote Amazing Grace. Here is Part 1.

John Henry Newton is my name. The details of my life are a little sketchy. Afterall, I am 275 years old! So bear with me, here, I am working with what I have. If it's on Wiki, it has to be true, right?

I was born in London in 1725. My mother was “non-conformist Christian,” meaning she was a practicing Christian but did not care for the excesses of the Church of England. She died of TB when I was six.

My father was a shipmaster in the Mediterranean, and he didn’t have much at all to do with religion.

At the age of 11, I went to sea with my father, and by 18 I had sailed six voyages with him.

My father planned for me to be a slave master on a sugar plantation in Jamaica. Instead I was pressed into serving the Royal Navy as captain of a slave ship. “Pressed into serving” really means I had no choice in the matter. Coercion was a common tactic for the Royal Navy to ensure they had enough men to meet their needs.

Of course, coercion doesn’t make loyalty, and I hated my job. I was bounced from ship to ship, demoted from captain all the way to the lowest level of seaman. At one point I was given over to an African duchess and treated like the slaves themselves. I was once an infidel, a rogue, and a servant of the slaves in Africa.
The difference between me and the slaves was that my father put the word out and a sea captain rescued me.

Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound
with
Amazing Grace Shall Always Be My Song of Praise

Black History Month: God Has Smiled on Me

Another song I had to learn pronto when I began playing for an urban congregation was "God Has Smiled on Me."

"Do you know this one, Iggy? We sing it here ALOT!"

"I am sorry, but I haven't heard it, so give me a week or two to work it out!"

To make matters a little more complicated, there are about as many arrangements of this song as there are congregations that sing it.

This recording is about as close as I could find to the way it is sung at my congregation. We take it a little faster, though.

I like this song as a Lutheran because it clearly places the Christian's conversion in God's power.

God has smiled on me;
He has set me free.
God has smiled on me;
He's been good to me.

Occasionally you find that someone picks up the refain and puts their own twist on the stanzas. Here's Mary Mary with their own take on this gospel classic.

Here's an a capella arrangement that works in "Amazing Grace" as the stanzas while the melody from the refrain is hummed underneath. Unfortunately the recording cuts out a bit early, but at least the creative aspect is captured.

And finally, this song was written by Rev. James Cleveland, and here is his arrangement.

Black History Month: Till Now We Stand At Last

Here's the African-American National Anthem, sung during the Divine Service in the rural Midwest. The note over on youtube states, "Angel and Cindi sing 'Lift Every Voice' in honor of Independence Day during the Offering."  After listening, please check out the website for St. Paul Lutheran Church in Hamel, Illinois.

See Hymn 964 in Lutheran Service Book for the music.

Lift every voice and sing,
'Til earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith
that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope
that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on 'til victory is won.

Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chast'ning rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way
that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path
through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
'Til now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places,
our God, where we met Thee,
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world,
we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.