Voices Found at the the tomb

 Voices Found #50

At break of day

At break of day three women came to find where Christ was laid.

With myrrh prepared to anoint his corpse, they wept and mourned the dead.

But now the stone is rolled away, they worship in full day,

then run to take the good news back and share their holy joy

O Mary, see your son again, in resurrection joy.

Shine, shine Jerusalem, for Christ is risen in majesty.

Lift up your eyes, look round and see, rejoicing, strong and free,

upper children come to find their home for all eternity.

Come celebrate the death of death! Come share eternal life!

Come leap and praise the living god who opens paradise!

For dawn has come all shining bright, to show salvation's might

to break the tomb, burst through the gloom, and flood the world with light.

Words: Janet Wooton

Music: Kingsfold, English melody; adapt. Ralph Vaughn Williams (1872-1958)

Janet Wootton (b. 1952)

Writing has been a lifelong passion for Janet Wootton, from academic books and articles to worship material, poems and hymnody. Her hymns are widely represented in denominational collections, and as a mentor as generous with her time as with her gifts, she has encouraged and nurtured the talent of many other writers, through her work since 1993 as editor of Worship Live and, since 2003, as Director of Learning for the Congregational Federation.

Born in 1952, she heard the call to ministry aged 13, during a sermon given by her lay-preacher father, a calling she approached by way of a firstclass honours degree in Classics (Greats) at St Hilda’s College, Oxford, and studies at Oxford’s Mansfield College. Her PhD from King’s College, London, compared John Scotus Eriugena with Alfred North Whitehead. Matching academic achievement with practical accomplishment, she was for seventeen years minister of Islington’s Union Chapel, a remarkable Victorian building which under her dynamic stewardship was transformed into a wide-ranging community and arts space.

Janet Wootton has travelled widely as President of the Congregational Federation and Moderator of the Churches’ Commission on Mission and of the International Congregational Federation. She has also chaired various committees on mission, worship development and community development. She was founder-co-chair of the International Congregational Theological Commission, which, among other things, publishes the International Congregational Journal. As well as editing the ICJ, Janet is on the editorial team for the journal Feminist Theology, and has been involved in the production of various hymn resources, including Hymns & Psalms, Reflecting Praise and Peculiar Honours.

Meditation

Mark 16: 1-8

When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome brought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. ²And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. ³They had been saying to one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?’⁴When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. ⁵As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. ⁶But he said to them, ‘Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him.⁷But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.’ ⁸So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.^*