{"id":382,"date":"2026-05-12T20:21:45","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T20:21:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/?p=382"},"modified":"2026-05-12T20:57:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T20:57:42","slug":"the-servant-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/2026\/05\/12\/the-servant-song\/","title":{"rendered":"The servant song"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Tuesday 12 May. Song 16 \u2018Brother, Sister, let me serve you\u2019<br><\/strong>Words &amp; Music: Richard Gillard \u00a9 Kingsway\u2019s ThankYou Music<br>YouTube recording:&nbsp; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ttW9oQ-yiuU\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ttW9oQ-yiuU<\/a><br>Featured image: wedding banner from All Saints church, Leeds. Image \u00a9 Stephen Craven<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I allocated this song to the 12<sup>th<\/sup> May for a reason. Every 12<sup>th<\/sup> of the month, Linda and I mark the date in some way as our \u2018monthiversary\u2019. Not the wedding anniversary, but a little reminder each month of our commitment to each other. The banner pictured here came from a church in Leeds that was closing down, and now hangs on our bedroom wall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This song was one that we had at our wedding. Along with a reading from Romans chapter 12, it reminded us and all those present that marriage is not just about the romantic occasions and happy holidays. It is about settling into the practicalities of living together, and supporting one another when bad times come. For come they will. That is why the traditional church marriage service contains vows to support each other \u2018for richer, for poorer, for better, for worse, in sickness and in health\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Richard Gillard\u2019s song covers the same range of ideas.&nbsp; \u2018We are here to help each other walk the mile and bear the load\u2019. \u2018I will hold my hand out to you, speak the peace you long to hear\u2019. \u2018I will weep when you are weeping, when you laugh I\u2019ll laugh with you\u2019. And so on. The last verse (apart from the repeat of the first verse at the end, as has become common practice) looks forward to eternal life, \u2018when we sing to God in heaven, we shall find such harmony\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although ideal for a wedding, the song was probably not written with that setting in mind. It is for all Christians to sing, as a reminder that we commit ourselves to being part of a local and global fellowship. \u201cThere should be no division in the body, but its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it.\u201d (1 Corinthians 12:25-26, NIV).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The song dates from the 1970s, and the original words were \u2018Brother, let me be your servant\u2019, perhaps inspired by monasticism. But in any hymn book of the last 30 years the first line has been altered to be more inclusive. It has become so popular that it appears in anything from \u2018Songs of Fellowship\u2019 to recent editions of \u2018Hymns Ancient and Modern\u2019, which probably have very few entries in common. I found it in five of the hymn books I have, and the four of them that include music all use the same four-part arrangement by Betty Pulkingham of the tune titled \u2018Servant Song\u2019, but in different keys (D, E or E\u266d major).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tuesday 12 May. Song 16 \u2018Brother, Sister, let me serve you\u2019Words &amp; Music: Richard Gillard \u00a9 Kingsway\u2019s ThankYou MusicYouTube recording:&nbsp; https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ttW9oQ-yiuUFeatured image: wedding banner from All Saints church, Leeds. Image \u00a9 Stephen Craven I allocated this song to the 12th May for a reason. Every 12th of the month, Linda and I mark the date [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[191,166,163],"class_list":["post-382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-common-ground","tag-marriage","tag-servant","tag-serving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":386,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382\/revisions\/386"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}