Many people have tapped into the popularity of Christmas as a singing season and produced skilful or sad purpose-built carols. John Rutter springs to mind as the most commercially successful, and Cliff Richard has his own commercial take on the genre. On the whole I am not overly drawn to designer carols as evidenced in my other choices which are really poetry set to music or folk songs from no-one notable. Nevertheless at No 2 I have just such a carol, written by the once hugely popular Graham Kendrick.
Like a candle flame
Flickering small in our darkness
Uncreated light
Shines through infant eyes
God is with us, alleluia (Men)
God is with us, alleluia (Women)
Come to save us, alleluia (Men)
Come to save us (Women)
Alleluia! (All)
Stars and angels sing
Yet the earth sleeps in shadows
Can this tiny spark
Set a world on fire?
Yet his light shall shine
From our lives, Spirit blazing
As we touch the flame
Of his holy fire
Flickering small in our darkness
Uncreated light
Shines through infant eyes
God is with us, alleluia (Men)
God is with us, alleluia (Women)
Come to save us, alleluia (Men)
Come to save us (Women)
Alleluia! (All)
Stars and angels sing
Yet the earth sleeps in shadows
Can this tiny spark
Set a world on fire?
Yet his light shall shine
From our lives, Spirit blazing
As we touch the flame
Of his holy fire
Graham Kendrick
Copyright © 1988 Make Way Music,
www.grahamkendrick.co.uk
Copyright © 1988 Make Way Music,
www.grahamkendrick.co.uk
It is my second choice because it is, in my opinion, utterly beautiful. Added to which it is simple and somehow combines the simplicity of the Christ-child with the power of the Holy Spirit, the latter scarcely ever meaningfully referenced in carols which seem to often lead to Easter but never on to Pentecost.
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