Sydney Carter

Sydney Bertram Carter was English Christian song-writer who died aged 89 in 2004. He was a Quaker. His songs include Lord of the Dance.

Sydney Carter
RELATED TOPICS	Quakers Songs - The Lord of the Dance, When I needed a neighbour
SERMONS, ESSAYS AND OPINIONS
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He studied at Christ's Hospital school in Horsham, West Sussex and Balliol College, Oxford, graduating in history in 1936.

He was a pacifist and joined the Friends' Ambulance Unit on the outbreak of World War II and served in Egypt, Palestine and Greece.

He wrote the lyrics "Lord Of The Dance" in 1963, as an adaptation of Joseph Brackett's "Simple Gifts", and a tribute to Shaker music.

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Quotes

Sydney Carter, about his song Lord of the Dance:

I did not think the churches would like it at all. I thought many people would find it pretty far flown, probably heretical and anyway dubiously Christian. But in fact people did sing it and, unknown to me, it touched a chord... Anyway, it's the sort of Christianity I believe in... I see Christ as the incarnation of the piper who is calling us. He dances that shape and pattern which is at the heart of our reality. By Christ I mean not only Jesus; in other times and places, other planets, there may be other Lords of the Dance. But Jesus is the one I know of first and best. I sing of the dancing pattern in the life and words of Jesus... Whether Jesus ever leaped in Galilee to the rhythm of a pipe or drum I do not know. We are told that David danced (and as an act of worship too), so it is not impossible. The fact that many Christians have regarded dancing as a bit ungodly (in a church, at any rate) does not mean that Jesus did.

Links

• Wikipedia - Sydney Carter
• Official site - Sydney Carter

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