Gifts of bread and wine.

[old barmaid]

At a recent family funeral,I was surprised to be expected to sing 'Gifts of bread and wine ' as an offertory
hymn. Why do priests allow it? Are they so dim that that they cannot understand the past tense used means that it should not be sung before the Consecration? I was also dismayed to find we were continuing on to the theological nonsense of
verse 3 which asks us to pray through the Father with the Spirit to the Son. A great pity that it is included in CFE, even
if only in the supplement. What other horrors are still around ?

[docmattc]

At a recent family funeral,I was surprised to be expected to sing 'Gifts of bread and wine ' as an offertory
hymn. Why do priests allow it? Are they so dim that that they cannot understand the past tense used means that it should not be sung before the Consecration?

Welcome to the forum Old Barmaid. (That ranks in the top ten phrases I never expected to type )
You are right about Gifts of Bread and Wine, as we've disucssed before. The thread was split from another so it doesn't start very coherently.
The trouble is that people (including the editors of HO&N) see the trigger words Gifts, Bread and Wine and count it as offertory. The "Index of uses" section at the back of the hymnbook is, as we all know, infallible, so that compounds the problem. The merest glance at the tense reveals this to be a communion hymn if its to be used at all. Why is it allowed? Unwillingness to challenge the status quo, lack of interest in music in the liturgy, never actually thinking about the words. At funerals, its often a case of choosing "grandma's favourite hymns" (I think there's a thread on that somewhere too) irrespective of appropriateness.

What other horrors are still around ?

Now thats a can of worms!

[musicus]

A great pity that it is included in CFE, even
if only in the supplement.

I have no doubt at all that it was left out of the first edition of CFE for the very reasons discussed here. The original editor of CFE was (and is) no fool, but, IMHO, subsequent editions have restored certain items that would have been better left to languish in outer darkness.

Welcome to the forum, OB.

[JW]

Well, old barmaid, now you're asking. Here's my personal cringe-list. If anyone is upset by it, that is not my primary intention and I apologise. All lines are in the 2005 edition of HON.

"O noble Tower of David, of gold and ivory"
"Kum ba yah my Lord; Kum ba yah"
"And io, io, io"
"Bring me my bow of burning gold, bring me my arrows of desire, bring me my spear"
"All her feasts, her actions, worship"
"O blissful and calm was the wonderful rest that thou gavest thy God in thy virginal breast"
"Shall I play for you, par-rum-pa-pum-pum, upon my drum"
"That title so wondrous fills all our desire"
"Bind us together"
"All I have, I give you" (addressed to Mary)
"If I were a fuzzy wuzzy bear, I'd thank you Lord for my fuzzy wuzzy hair"
"O loving Pelican"
"If you get to heaven before I do-sies do-sies"

[musicus]

Tempting though Old Barmaid's supplementary question is, everyone, let's stay on-topic please.