Alone we could not learn to read

Author: Carol Christopher Drake

From the newsletter of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Berkeley, California: "Many of you asked about the communion hymn we sang last Sunday, Hymn 69. 'What is the crying at Jordan?' was written in the 1950s by Carol Christopher Drake, a former member of St. Mark’s Choir. Carol also wrote the parish centennial hymn 'Gather us in, God make us One.' [Hymn 69] voices a response to John the Baptist’s 'crying in the wilderness,' of his demand that people change their lives in preparation for the coming of the Messiah. She wrote this text specifically for the present tune, St. Mark’s, Berkeley, which in her words 'evoked a sense of mystery and awe.' The tune’s first American use was in the children’s songbook 'Sing for Joy,' co… Go to person page >