Monday 14 September 2009

The Sunday Service: The LEONARDiction

Thanks to Phil's recent blog post over at Philip's Tree House regarding my CAVEspers I've been spurred on to come up with a new Sunday Service. So here it is - The LEONARDiction.

My long-held view is that the title of most inspired song-writers belongs to the holy trinity of Bob Dylan, Nick Cave and Leonard Cohen. Having compiled a DYLitANy and CAVEspers already, I felt it was time to give the honour to Mr Cohen. (Incidently I've been very fortunate to see all three leading worship in London during the last 18 months.)

Why 'The LEONARDiction' - well being a traditionalist I had to come up with some kind of religious pun, however paltry. Also, the Benediction - or blessing - that usually accompanies the end of a church service or prayer time is somewhat appropriate for Cohen. For some reason a benediction is always 'prounounced' - and in my experience that means the minister or priest delivers it with a sombre yet uplifting tone. And surely if such contradictory adjectives were ever to be attributed to a singer's voice - it has to be Cohen's. So here's the 'setlist'...

Processional Hymn: Hallelujah (Various Positions, 1985)

Praise and Worship:
Love Calls You by Your Name (Songs of Love and Hate, 1971)
Dance Me to the End of Love (Various Positions, 1985)
That Don't Make It Junk (Ten New Songs, 2001)

Intercessionary Prayers: The Future (The Future, 1992)

Confession:
Everybody Knows (I'm Your Man, 1988)
Tower of Song (I'm Your Man, 1988)

Bible reading: The Story of Isaac (Songs From a Room, 1969)

Sermon: Anthem (The Future, 1992)

Response: If it be Your Will (Various Positions, 1985)

Recessional hymn: Here It Is (Ten New Songs, 2001)

5 comments:

RJ said...

this is beautiful... one of the great joys of my adult life is actually putting together liturgies like this (U2, Springsteen, the blues, etc.) and then getting to PLAY them for worship. I totally LOVE this and give thanks to your thoughtful and prayerful work, brother.

Nick Coke said...

Thanks RJ. I wish I got the chance to PLAY them! Just don't know enough people around me who would be into this. Still, these Cohen songs really touched my soul in putting this together.

Cosmo said...

Another great one, Nick. Well done.

I have tried to think up the next liturgical pun, but have so far failed...

Gordon said...

Thanks for this Nick, well done!

I hope you don't mind but I made a youtube playlist including a link to this blog post. here's the link

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=F8ACEE53AEB114E1

Nick Coke said...

Thanks Gordon - good work. Didn't think of doing that, but one to know for the future!