Welkin

Just a slight adjustment.

Charles Wesley wrote a hymn about Christmas beginning

Hark how all the welkin rings,

Glory to the King of Kings

On the face of it the editor who gave us, instead, Hark! The herald angels sing! (complete with exclamation mark) made it a whole lot more understandable, fun and even Christmassy. Didn't he?

Not necessarily so.

In the Christmas story the heralding angels said rather than sang. That seems trivial until we think how much more carefully we pay attention to said words than sung words. Maybe if the angels had sung 'Glory to God in the Highest' the shepherds, like the audiences at a thousand Christmas shows, would have politely or even ecstatically applauded. And then carried on sheep-watching. But Christmas wasn't a performance, it was a proclamation!

And losing the welkin isn't such good news either. In the ancient mind it was the roof, the imagined dome, of the sky where the stars were the decoration. Like any good roof it could ring if the volume was great enough. A new-born king wouldn't be enough to impact the welkin, but the King of kings, God in the Highest?

Oh, yes. He's well worth a shuddering welkin of praise. He always was and always will be, whether in a manger, on a cross or more properly on a throne.

I don't expect I will ever sing about the welkin. I suppose I will always Hark to imaginary singing angels. But, please God, may Christmas never be for me a performance, but a message that heaven is shouting.

Have a very Happy Christmas!

(You can join in a rendering of the original by clicking here, but in my view the tune is enough to make the welkin weep!)