Hannah C Brown

hymn writer

  • Elemental Joy

    I am thrilled that a collection of my hymn texts is now available through GIA Publications. You can also listen to the songs on Spotify (part 1, part 2) or YouTube (part 1, part 2).

    It has been such a privilege to collaborate with editor Adam Tice and composers Sally Ann Morris, Ben Brody, Kate Williams, Mark Miller, and Anneli Loepp Thiessen, and to have my words matched with existing tunes of many eras and styles from other gifted composers and arrangers.

    This book has so much of my heart in it and touches on topics ranging from issues of justice such as disability access, LGBTQ affirmation, bodily autonomy, and environmental care; to human experiences of grief, comfort, loneliness, hope, and growth; to expansive explorations of Christian stories and seasons.

  • God, Be With Your Weary People

    Photo by Mahmud Ahsan on Unsplash

    Every year during Advent, we are invited to anticipate Jesus’ arrival among us with joy. This text uses imagery found in Advent scriptures, asking God to come meet our urgent needs and help awaken our hope.

    You can preview or purchase this hymn on GIA Unbound. It is also a part of my collection Elemental Joy. The text is set to the familiar tune HYFRYDOL and also to Sally Ann Morris’ beautiful tune TREASURED.

  • Give Me A Name

    Photo by Samara Doole on Unsplash

    I first became interested in the many instances of renaming in the bible when I changed my last name to honor my grandmother’s ministry many years ago.  This concept took on a new urgency when I attended a conference held by and for trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming folks in January of 2023. I was surrounded by people longing to be known by others as they know themselves to be, including my former spouse. This hymn is for her and for all of us who desire to have our full selves recognized and blessed in sacred spaces. It could be used whenever we may feel the need to be renamed or reclaimed: at baptism, after a gender transition, following divorce, or beyond. Whoever we are, and whatever has changed, we are always God’s beloved children.

    I wrote this text to be used with the tune WOODWORTH which for many has an association with the text “Just as I am.” You can preview or purchase the text and music for this hymn here. It is also a part of my collection Elemental Joy. and the United Church of Canada resource Then Let Us Sing.

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  • Jesus, Faithful Ancient Tree

    Photo by niko photos on Unsplash

    A few years ago I preached an Easter sermon on fungus: the amazing underground networks that connect trees so that a whole forest can operate as one organism. The hub of that forest organism is sometimes called a mother tree, an elder that shares memory and resources with others. Research on this phenomenon has been done by the ecologist Suzanne Simard, among others.  Simard describes how trees that are dying in this network offer their nutrients to those around them. This sounded surprisingly similar to what Jesus did through his death and resurrection.

    Our scriptures are full of shoots, branches, and vines, many of them describing God. How might it challenge or inspire our faith to focus on these images? How might it change our value for creation?

    I’m grateful to Ben Brody for composing a beautiful tune for this text. You can preview or purchase the piece at GIA Unbound and reproduce it for worship with One License. It is also part of my collection Elemental Joy. Listen to Ben sing it here:

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  • As We Are, We Are Yours

    Photo by Katie Rainbow 🏳️‍🌈 on Unsplash

    I have participated in many communities that try to welcome those on the margins of society or on the margins of the church.  This is a beautiful sentiment, and it can also contribute to more “othering”.  In the contexts that I experienced it was we, the white, the educated, the wealthy, the able-bodied, the cisgender: we embrace you in this space that we have defined and where we are at home. So I wondered about turning that around, and allowing whoever was singing to claim God’s welcome, in our diversity, as we are and as we are becoming.

    I have followed Mark Miller’s work for years. It was such a thrill that he was interested in working with this text, and I love what he created. I hope that this song will bless many communities seeking to live out acceptance and inclusion.

    You can preview or purchase the music and text on GIA Unbound and duplicate it for worship with One License. It is also a part of my printed collection Elemental Joy Mark Miller’s CD, Revolution of the Heart, and the United Church of Canada Resource, Then Let Us Sing. You can listen to the CD track on Spotify here or watch Mark and collaborator Julian Wamble sing it:

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  • I Know God Holds You

    My journey towards parenthood was not as difficult as it is for many, and it was still marked by grief and fear. Along the way I had two miscarriages, losses that were hard to grapple with. Few people knew about them. I had never been taught how to grieve them, or what to believe about them.

    When I began writing hymns, I wondered if it would be possible to sing about this kind of loss in a congregation. I wanted a place for it in community life. I wanted those who experience it to feel less alone.

    While I was writing, I started to remember other griefs that I have accompanied people through, and noticed similarities. Many losses come too soon, even after years of shared life and love. And while not everyone in a community has had a pregnancy loss, almost everyone knows grief in some form. A song grounded in a very specific experience became more general.

    I sent a draft to my editor at GIA, Adam Tice. He forwarded it to Kate Williams, Vice President of Sacred Music, who edited a book and album titled Of Womb and Tomb: Prayer in Time of Infertility, Miscarriage, and Stillbirth.

    Within a few hours, I received an audio track that she had created with a song that was just what I had needed — and what I continue to need — to accompany and ease my sense of loss. It was an amazing gift to me, and I hope it will be a gift to many others. Our love goes on.

    You can find the music to preview or purchase on GIA Unbound and reproduce it with One License. This piece is also a part of my collection Elemental Joy. Here’s Kate singing it:

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  • Roll Away the Stone

    Photo by http://www.LumoProject.com

    How do we receive an Easter message of hope when we’re struggling? Here is a hymn for all those churches finding their ways into new expressions of ministry and all the folks weary from personal and political challenges. I wrote it with inspiration from the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ which is using this theme for our 2023 Annual Meeting.

    The wonderful Southern Harmony tune RESTORATION is most often paired with the text “Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy” which creates a dialogue between an exhorter (verse) and a believer (refrain). This new text for that tune plays with the pattern, with the people (verse) asking for help from Christ, who responds with encouragement (refrain).

    Find the hymn to preview or purchase on GIA Unbound. This piece is also a part of my collection, Elemental Joy.

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  • O Jesus Who Traveled

    During Holy Week, many churches read extended passages of the Gospels which share stories of Jesus’ last days. We remember the gifts that Jesus offers us while also recalling the many people and systems that betray him. This text can be a companion on that journey, with the verses being interspersed with readings if desired. The questions in each verse invite us to consider our own role in the story, collectively and individually, past and present.

    I am honored that Sally Ann Morris wrote a beautiful original tune for this text called TRAVELER. It could also be sung to I WONDER AS I WANDER. Find the hymn to preview or purchase on GIA Unbound. It’s also part of my collection Elemental Joy.

    Thanks to Brian Hehn of The Hymn Society of the United States and Canada who highlighted this hymn in his “Coffee & Hymns” video about new hymns for Lent in 2023. Watch (and listen!) here:

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  • We Seek You With Our Questions

    This text was inspired by A Sanctified Art’s Lenten series for 2023, “Seeking: honest questions for deeper faith” which explores questions found in the Revised Common Lectionary’s texts for Year A. Their theme provides a lovely invitation to consider all of the questions we bring to God, and the questions God asks us in return; to measure faith not by the strength of our certainty, but by the sincerity of our desire. 

    We seek you with our questions, God,
    with open heart and mind;
    we long to live a fresher life
    and leave our past behind,
    for all that we have known before
    has faded and grown worn.
    We seek you with our questions, God,
    that we might be reborn.

    We wonder why things come to pass
    and how to come alive.
    Where do your living waters flow?
    How can dry bones revive?
    Who are you, God, who meet us here
    with wisdom and with sign?
    We seek you with our questions, God,
    we yearn for truth divine.

    We search for you in garden green
    where once you gave us birth;
    We search for you in desert parched
    and all throughout the earth.
    With wonder, worry, doubt, and awe
    we search through night and day.
    We seek you with our questions, God,
    at home and far away.

    You seek us with your questions, God,
    inviting us to dare
    to know you and to love you more,
    to grow through act and prayer.
    “Who will you trust and follow now?
    My truth is all around.”
    You seek us with your questions, God,
    you seek and we are found.

    Text by Hannah C. Brown © 2022 GIA Publications, Inc.
    This text could be used with many familiar tunes with a 8.6.8.6D meter, including KINGSFOLD, FOREST GREEN, LUCY, or ELLACOMBE. This text can be reproduced with One License.

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  • A Word Went Out to Mary

    I have always loved the gentle beauty of both the text and tune of “Lo, How a Rose.” More recently, I discovered that there was another set of words written to the same tune, “A Great and Mighty Wonder,” which emphasizes the high and holy nature of the child who arrives among us. Here I reference both texts while exploring the marvel of God’s arrival through physical birth.

    Find this new text for the tune ES IST EIN ROS to preview or purchase on GIA Unbound. It’s also included in my collection, Elemental Joy.

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