Hymns by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette

No Longer
LEONI (6.6.8.4) ("The God of Abraham Praise")

No longer Jew or Greek, no longer slave or free —
In you, O Christ, we're given wondrous unity.
Here in your church we learn that nothing can divide;
Here men and women, called by God, serve side by side.

No longer in your church should there be rich or poor —
You taught us kingdom values worth our struggling for.
Here some have wealth to give, and some, great faith to share.
The life we live together is an answered prayer.

No longer left or right, defending our own case —
O God, we're sinners in your sight, in need of grace.
The common bond we know is Christ who sets us free;
In Christ we live and love and grow in unity.

O God, we look around and know (each one) our guilt;
By your own Spirit, now break down the walls we've built.
When we were all baptized, we died to our old ways;
A church diverse, yet one in Christ, we give you praise.

Biblical Reference: Galatians 3:23-29
Tune: Traditional Hebrew melody, adapted by Thomas Olivers and Meyer Lyon, 1770 ("The God of Abraham Praise")
Text: Copyright © 2005 by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette. All rights reserved.
Copied from Songs of Grace: New Hymns for God and Neighbor by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette (Upper Room Books, 2009).
Email: bcgillette@comcast.net     New Hymns: www.carolynshymns.com/

See also Hymns Celebrating Women of the Bible and Books About Women of the Bible.

Hymn Use Permission: Songs of Grace: New Hymns for God and Neighbor by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette (Upper Room Books, 2009) includes a permission note for those who own this book to use this hymn (along with the 76 other new hymns in the book) in their local church's worship services. People who do not own Songs of Grace are asked to contact Carolyn (bcgillette@comcast.net) for permission to use the hymn and to get a copy of the hymn formatted for worship bulletin use.


Hymn Note for "No Longer"

This hymn is based on Galatians 3:23-29. It was written at the request of the Rev. Dr. Jacqueline E. Taylor, then Moderator of the Synod of the Mid-Atlantic of the Presbyterian Church (USA). The hymn was sung for the first time at the Synod's annual meeting at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, Delaware.

The early church struggled with divisiveness, even as the church does today. The radical nature of God's grace that Paul talks about in Galatians 3:28 is a message for today as much as it was for the first readers of his letter. God's love in Jesus Christ not only overcomes the barriers between humanity and God, but also calls for an end to the barriers between people, especially in the Christian church.

Once when I was in Honduras after Hurricane Mitch — a storm that killed thousands of people there — a church worker in a rural community said to me, "Some North American churches seem to worry and fight about the most unusual things. I think it is better to spend our time and energy feeding the children who are hungry. I think that is what God would want us to do."

One of the problems with divisiveness and conflict in the church is that while we are trying to solve it, the world goes right on by. We lose opportunities for reaching out to children, youth and young adults. We overlook evangelism needs. We make mission a lower priority than it should be. On the other hand, when we work as one body of Christ, "the life we live together is an answered prayer."

Copied from Songs of Grace: New Hymns for God and Neighbor by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette (Upper Room Books, 2009).