Forgive us, Lord, for we have been hasty :
yea, so hasty that we have knocked over Last Year’s Paschal Candle.
In all fairness, the stand was a bit wobbly :
but the incense studs did verily fall out.
We searched, and four pins were found :
Yet one remains lost from our sight.
High and low we searched for it :
Even unto behind the shelf full of hymnals.
We have kneeled and prostrated ourselves in our searching :
Truly our faces were down in the dust.
Fragments of the Christmas tree have we found, and a Pew Slip from 2009 :
Also, beneath a pew, a two pound coin which shall duly be added to the Organ Fund.
Hear us, O Lord, in Thy mercy :
Reveal to us the places to search, the crevices and crannies we have not yet seen.
Edited to add:
I think we’ve accepted that the incense pin is gone, gone, gone. Expensive: they only seem to come in sets of five, and I haven’t seen any like the ones we use. So we’re going to have to replace them, and that right early soon: Easter Day is less than two weeks away.
This is a bit daft, but worth a try: if you buy the incense pins for our parish, I’ll take the psalm text, write a chant for it, and record it. Think of it as a sort of miniature Kickstarter campaign. To contribute, comment here or e-mail me at artsyhonker at gmail dot com. I’ll edit this post again when we reach the £50 total (that seems to be roughly the price for others I’ve found online).
The beauty of Anglican Chant, of course, is that it can be used for any of the real psalms and canticles, not just this pretend one. I will release the work under CC BY-SA, as I do with all my compositions. So you’ll be contributing to the continuation of a rich choral tradition.
Edit 23.15 19-03-2013:
Matt has pledged £20. £30 to go!