Over the last five years I have worked on the Development Team for the new United Church of Canada singing resource, Then Let Us Sing!. We will release a print version of the new resources in Spring 2025. Check out https://tlus.onelicense.net for more information about and access to the online content for this new resource.

A simple song that has come to have special meaning in my ‘spiritual first aid kit’ is TLUS 72, Oh Let Us Breathe. The words by Canadian author Lori Erhardt form a mantra that, by using text substitutions in subsequent verses, expands on the idea of how we already know how to be in community.

The first verse:
Oh, let us breathe, breathe and be together,
Breathe and be together, together now.
Oh, let us breathe, breathe and be together,
Breathe and be together, as if we knew how.

Subsequent suggested verses replace “breathe” and “be together” with “live…in love together”, “pray…for peace together” and “Arise…and shine together.” This example allows a community of singers much creative space to express their own ways of being in unity and common experience, particular to the present moment.

The music is by Toronto composer and arranger, Jason Locke. The gentle triplet motion in 4/4 over “breathe and be together” helps us to slow down and have a ‘holy moment’ encounter with the words combined with the lyric melody. His lovely palette of extended harmonies richly colour the text, evoking a sense of reaching out, an extending of a hand or the offering of eye contact, inviting us to notice our common humanity as people of faith, perceiving mutuality in a world where too often we feel isolated and alone. It’s a beautiful selection that I commend to your collection for community singing.

Kevin Parks
Toronto, ON, Canada.

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A recording of Kevin leading this song is available on Facebook.

Kevin Parks (he/him/his) is an MDiv student at the Atlantic School of Theology in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was the Congregation Designated Minister of Music at St. Andrew's United Church and University Musician at AST.  He serves on the development team for the United Church of Canada's coming (2025) digital hymn resource Then Let Us Sing! He's an occasional blogger on worship matters and an active clinician/worship animator at conferences and workshops in the Atlantic Canada region. He attended MMC workshops in New Jersey and Chicago in 2018-19 and was part of the MMC board from 2023-2024.  

We invite you to join us in this soul tending work by considering a gift of $100 or more toward this year’s “Spiritual Toolkit” Campaign. Our fundraising goal is $50,000 by the end of the year. We invite you to join us in this soul tending work with a gift of any size. All contributions make a difference in our ability to provide programming throughout the United States and Canada -- and then invite others by sharing your stories of how communal song-sharing is part of your Spiritual Toolkit.