Coursing River – Carol Barnett

Composer: Carol Barnett

Text by: James Gertmenian

Instrumentation: SATB

Duration: Approx. 3 minutes

Date Written:  2014

Composer’s note: Coursing River was written in honor of James Gertmenian and his wife Susan Deborah “Sam” King on the occasion of their retirement from eighteen years of exceptional ministry and outreach at Plymouth Congregational Church in Minneapolis. In addition to their many pastoral activities, they are both excellent and imaginative writers, and it was a privilege to set Jim’s own words, first in a congregational hymn (found on the last page of the score), and in this hymn-based anthem.

text

THERE IS A COURSING RIVER 

There is a coursing river 
Beneath the common sod 
Whose depth we cannot fathom, 
Whose source is none but God; 
And pilgrims on their journeys 
Are often unaware 
That freshets rising from below 
Are welling everywhere. 

Their course cannot be bounded 
By book or creed or sign, 
By certainty or logic, 
By reason or by rhyme. 
We cannot claim the knowledge 
Of where a spring will flow, 
Or when God’s grace will surface 
From reservoirs below. 

But if some thirsty trav’ler 
Should faint upon the way, 
Let others come assuring 
To comfort and to pray 
That though distressed and doubting 
The injured one will know 
How water rises to the need 
And emptied cups o’erflow. 

So pilgrims, be encouraged! 
Though all around you lies 
A rocky and a barren land 
Where everything seems dry. 
There is a coursing river 
Beneath the common sod 
Whose depth we cannot fathom, 
Whose source is none but God. 

Text © James Gertmenian, 2014 
Tune:(Gertmenian) Carol Barnett 7.6.7