Reviewed by Jonathan Evans

Love and anger- two emotions visible in the life of Jesus. We are more comfortable, perhaps, with love being at the heart of Jesus' ministry, but anger at injustice and false religion are as much a part of the gospel. The Bible deals with the whole breadth of human experience, especially in the Psalms, but look through your average church hymn book and much of human experience is noticeably absent. These songs by the Iona Community's worship group do something to fill that gap, bringing important and difficult issues under God's light, issues that have always been central to authentic Christian faith- social justice, concern for the poor, the outsider and the dispossessed. As is usual with Wild Goose offerings, the songs draw on both choral and folk traditions with influences from around the wild. Music and words go together well, from the warm and gentle harmonies of the comforting "God To Enfold You", to the challenging, almost disturbing words of "How Can We Stand Together?" with its correspondingly spiky Scottish folk tune. The songs weren't all to my musical taste-I found the songs from India and Pakistan hard to listen to, whereas I just loved the African ones, but overall this is an excellent resource both for personal use and for corporate worship.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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