Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:12:29 | Recorded on November 15, 2021

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We continue our series on Melodies of Hope: Hymns From Advent and Christmastide. Each year, our churches sing a familiar rotation of Advent and Christmas hymns, often without knowing their meaning and context. To provide a fresh take on the Christmas carol canon, we’ve enlisted eight worship leaders, songwriters and thinkers from around C4SO to tell us a favorite Advent or Christmas hymn, giving us historical and musical context, and a word of good news each hymn speaks to us today.

This episode’s song is “Comfort, Comfort Ye My People,” and our guest is the Rev. Dcn. Anna Purdum, a woman who wears many hats! She is a wife, a mother, a music teacher, and the Music and Worship Minister at Good Shepherd Anglican Church in Longview, Texas.

Anna is also a songwriter with eight recorded albums to her credit. Two of her albums, “Anglican Hymns” and “Anglican Hymns, volume II” contain hymn arrangements that she began recording with her husband and children during the Covid lockdowns of 2020, when her local parish moved to having church online. You can find all Anna’s music at her HearNow page.

The recording featured in this episode is “Comfort, Comfort Ye My People”, by Anna Purdum, from the album Anglican Hymns, Vol. II (2021).

• Our Cycle of Prayer Spotlight ministry this week is Christ Church in Austin, Texas, led by the Very Rev. Cliff Warner.
• C4SO recently started a Multiethnic Church Development Fund.
• C4SO welcomes the Rev. Canon Jay Greener as our new Dean for the Midwest.