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Shirley Erena Murray's text, "For everyone born," is a powerful hymn for human rights and justice. First published in 2004, it came to the attention of Community of Christ in 2008, with Brian Mann's tune.1 It will be published with new translations in Spanish and French in Community of Christ Sings, to be released in 2013. This hymn strongly resounds with the enduring principles of the denomination, created by an international council representing its global membership.2 Ironically it has also ignited a struggle over its very inclusion in the collection.
Because Community of Christ is represented in over fifty-five countries and committed to being an integrated global family, approximately 15% of the 650 hymns in the collection will be multilingual, representing a total of twenty-five languages spoken within the denomination. These songs will carry the three dominant languages of the denomination - English, French, and Spanish - as footnoted text meanings or singable translations. The intent is to have a "global core repertoire" for members to learn throughout the world and sing together in international gatherings regardless of one's native language. When "For everyone born" came to the attention of the hymnal editorial team, it was submitted for its complex themes of hospitality and peace-making represented in each verse and its alignment with the denomination's mission to promote communities of joy, hope, love, and peace. The text was a strong candidate because of the struggles and complex issues facing the church in various cultures in various ways. Murray presents the unconditional and challenging vision of God's shalom, especially as it addresses the worth of all persons.3
Murray says:
I wrote this text in 1998, when I was involved with work for Amnesty International and because I couldn't find anything to reflect a broad overview of human rights in any hymnbook.
You can see that I have used some of the very basic ideas of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - the right to shelter, safety, food, and later, the right to a job, to freedom of speech and worship. I've tried to put them in a context which relates directly to the Gospel, but without excluding those who are not of the Christian faith. . . . But in [a] more specific way,...