The hymn Philadelphia Cathedral was composed for the re-dedication of the Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral and its new Cathedral Center.
First performed at the Eucharist of the Annual Convention of the Diocese of Pennsylvania, Friday, November 6, 2015.

Text adapted from John Greenleaf Whittier, The Shadow and the Light

Cathedral full.jpg

organ score

melody only, for congregation

hymn text:

O love divine! whose constant beam
Shines on our eyes that will not see,
And waits to bless us, while we dream,
Nor leaves us though we turn from Thee,
No matter how we stray, Thou knowest
Wide as our need Thy favors fall;
The white wings of the Holy Ghost
Stoop unseen o'er the heads of all.

 

Our weakness is the strength of sin,
But love must needs be stronger far,
Our reaching all and gath'ring in
The lost one and the wand'ring star.
A Voice grows with the growing years;
Earth, hushing down her bitter cry,
Looks upward and hears
"The Resurrection and the Life am I."

                 John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892)

                 John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892)

O truth which sage and prophet saw,
Long sought without but found within,
The rule of Love beyond all law,
The Life o'erflooding death and sin,
Shine on us with the light which glow'd
upon the shepherd's way,
Who saw the darkness drown'd
by everlasting Day.