Eternal Light, Shine in Our Hearts

Use: General
Required Resources: SATB choir
Language: English

Tim Knight, a composer and choral director in Leeds, England, wrote this anthem in September 2001, just days after the tragic attack on New York City and Washington DC. [See also: The Solemn Organ (including "Prelude for the Fallen" Sept.11, 2001), p. 30]. The text is a beautiful prayer for deliverance:

Eternal light, shine in hearts,
Eternal goodness, deliver us,
deliver us from evil.
Eternal power be our support,
Eternal wisdom, scatter the darkness of our ignorance.
Eternal pity, have mercy on us,
that with our heart and mind and soul and strength
we may seek thy face
and be brought by thy infinite mercy
to thy holy presence.
Amen.

Of it, Mr. Knight writes:

"The text comes from Alcuin of York and is apt since I also come from York. It was a prayer regularly used at morning services when I was a choirboy at the minster — and I can't find anyone having set it."

This piece is useful as a general anthem, especially for those occasions, like some Sundays in Lent, in which deliverance from evil is a theme.

Mr. Knight has been Director of Music for various Northern Choral Societies and has served as Music Director/Organist for several parishes in the West Yorkshire area. He holds regular choral workshops and is singing tutor to the Yorkshire College of Music. He founded and directs the Heritage Singers.