Bound together across the ages...

Ardent followers of The Big Old Tokyo Hurrah may remember the lambaste I penned about the EPS at TUC some years ago in which I mentioned a song called Bind us Together, Lord. A friend of mine, who wishes only to be known as 'Rhiannon', commented that she wished I had written more about my experiences with said song. Well... in a purely co-incidental, but utterly sick-inducing nonetheless, way last Sunday, I was forced to sing the song at the evening service. As Norman played the introduction, I could actually feel myself tensing in a fight or flight way... when I was a child, we had to sing it at my church and everyone would insist on holding hands and then they would sway because it's that kind of song. I hated it. In the same way that I hated 'songs with actions'. With a Passion. I still hate it. I fear the person next to me will grab my hand even though I've never seen them before and drag me into the Holy Swaying ... I also hate the tune which sounds like a drunk 5 year old who has been given permission to play a Stradivarius with a saw. Thankfully, Methodists are much more reserved so it would seem and I escaped almost unscathed. I breathed a massive sigh of relief when it was over and tried to put it out of my mind. We were just settling ourselves when the Lady Vicar from Caerphilly Methodist who was preaching that evening said brightly "Oh my, we are very reserved, aren't we?" I thought for a panic filled minute that she was going to make us sing it again with linked arms but she limited her comments to "When we had this song this morning at Caerphilly, I had my nose in my Bible because I was doing the reading next, and when I looked up, from the back row, the entire congregation had started to hold hands... and then, they began swaying...! Marvellous." And all this with a grin the size of the moon on her face...