| Submit your comments on this article |
| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| The Most Famous New Year's Day Hymn, ‘Amazing Grace,' Celebrates 250 Years |
| 2023-01-01 |
| [The Federalist] The pastor of a large rural congregation was preparing his New Year’s Day sermon, based on the Old Testament text, 1 Chronicles 17:16-17. As he often did, he wrote a hymn to go with his message. Little did he know that his words in that simple hymn would be sung throughout the world for the next 250 years, and become one of the most loved hymns of all times, "Amazing Grace." Sunday, Jan. 1, 2023 is the 250th anniversary of this famous hymn written by Rev. John Newton, an Anglican priest and former captain of slave ships, who later in life joined William Wilberforce and worked to abolish slavery in the British Empire. Newton wrote "Amazing Grace" for his Anglican congregation — St. Peter and Paul Church in Olney Buckinghamshire, England — to sing on New Year’s Day, Jan. 1, 1773. The former wicked seafaring blasphemer, whose life took a dramatic turn when spared from a deadly storm, contemplated with King David, "Who am I, O Lord God...that you have brought me thus far?" |
| Posted by:Besoeker |