Lord, What is All Our Fighting For?

Representative Text

Lord, what is all our fighting for?
We train our young to go to war.
A young girl sees the terror spread
As soldiers shoot her parents dead.

Lord, what is our acceptance for?
We tolerate what you abhor.
Each day more little ones are lost;
May we seek truth and count war’s cost.

What can we for repentance bring?
You do not want an offering.
“Do what is just,” you simply say;
“Love what is kind and seek my way.”

Lord, what is all our silence for?
Now make us bold to say, “No more!”
The world need not be what it’s been;
Your peace will reign! Your love will win!

Source: Songs of Grace: new hymns for God and neighbor #75a

Author: Carolyn Winfrey Gillette

Carolyn Winfrey Gillette has been a pastor in rural, small town, suburban, and city churches; she has also served as a hospice chaplain, a hospital chaplain, and a school bus aide helping children with special needs. She and her husband Bruce are pastors of the First Presbyterian Union Church in Owego, NY. Carolyn is a gifted hymn writer who has written over 400 hymns. These hymns have been sung by congregations throughout the United States and around the world — from the Washington National Cathedral to St. Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland to St. George's Cathedral in Cape Town, South Africa to small town churches and small household congregations; they have also been sung at national church and international ecumenical meetin… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Lord, what is all our fighting for?
Title: Lord, What is All Our Fighting For?
Original Language: English
Author: Carolyn Winfrey Gillette (2005)
Meter: 8.8.8.8
Language: English
Publication Date: 2005
Copyright: Copyright © 2005 by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette. All rights reserved

Tune

TALLIS' CANON

TALLIS CANON is one of nine tunes Thomas Tallis (PHH 62) contributed to Matthew Parker's Psalter (around 1561). There it was used as a setting for Psalm 67. In the original tune the melody began in the tenor, followed by the soprano, and featured repeated phrases. Thomas Ravenscroft (PHH 59) publish…

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O WALY WALY

O WALY WALY is a traditional English melody associated with the song "O Waly, Waly, gin love be bony," the words of which date back at least to Ramsay's Tea Table Miscellany (1724-1732), and as the setting for a folk ballad about Jamie Douglas. It is also well known in the Appalachian region of the…

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Instances

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Text

Songs of Grace #75a

Text

Songs of Grace #75b

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