There Is a Love (Norton)

Beth Norton recalls, “A dear friend taught me Rev. Dr. Rebecca Parker’s beautiful meditation, and I found myself chanting it in my head as I walked each morning. Gradually, it developed into a melody with four phrases, one for each line, that naturally created a harmony as they were sung in canon. The gradual expansion of the harmony reflected the wider, concentric circles of love that are depicted in the meditation. Rev. Dr. Parker gave permission to share my setting of her words, noting that there are just the two verses: ‘There is a love holding me’ and ‘There is a love holding us. Singing ‘there is a love holding you’ takes away that sense that we are all included in this embrace of love—together.”

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Rebecca Parker says, “‘There Is a Love’ is a prayer to invoke healing and sustain peace for an ever widening circle of inclusion. It embodies the Universalist theological affirmation that God’s love embraces our whole lives and all of life.” 

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Rebecca Ann Parker first composed the words during her personal spiritual journey to recover from childhood trauma. Following 9/11, at the request of her dear friend, Rev. Mary Harrington, she taught the prayer at a retreat for Unitarian Universalist leaders who had gathered for spiritual strength to resist the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The prayer became a regular part of classes at Starr King School for the Ministry and in September 2011, Rebecca composed music for the words to be chanted as a round for the School’s opening Threshold Ceremony. From Starr King the prayer has spread. Parker’s musical setting has been passed from hand to hand and is published here for the first time.

A life-long church musician, Elizabeth (Beth) Norton (she/her) has served First Parish in Concord, Massachusetts as Director of Music Ministry since 1994, leading a dynamic adult choir and guiding a vital and varied music ministry for singers and instrumentalists of all ages and stages. She has led UU singers on concert pilgrimages to Eastern Europe, building musical bridges with Unitarian churches in Transylvania (Romania), Hungary and the Czech Republic.  She has served in leadership of the Association for UU Music Ministries (formerly the UUMN) and serves on the Ministerial Fellowship Committee of the UUA. 

Rebecca Ann Parker (she/her), President Emeritus and Professor of Theology Emeritus of Starr King School for the Ministry is a minister, musician, theologian, educator, and justice activist. Trained as a classical cellist, she entered the ministry while continuing to perform orchestral and chamber music nationally and internationally. Her influential books include Proverbs of Ashes (with Rita Nakashima Brock), Blessing the World, Saving Paradise (with Rita Nakashima Brock), and A House for Hope (with John Buehrens).