uganda, the beautiful

These are the lyrics written by David Weiss who is hosting Reverend Mark Kiyimba (for whose chapel service I rewrote a couple African prayers). We sang it today as a group at chapel. It's sung to the tune of "America, the Beautiful."

Beneath these bright and gracious skies, where hope is freely lent,
Yet children watch through vacant eyes, as families are rent.
Be merciful, bring justice now, O hear our urgent plea:
Preserve Uganda's future hope, and set her people free.

By missionary zeal first sown, as hearts for Christ were claimed,
But now against its flesh and bone, is hatred thus inflamed.
Be merciful, bring justice now, O hear our urgent plea:
Preserve Uganda's future hope, and set her people free.

O gracious God, take back your word, from preachers on our shores
Whose lust for blood goes undeterred, and on your children pours.
Be merciful, bring justice now, O hear our urgent plea:
Preserve Uganda's future hope, and set her people free.

In Africa, your soul delights, so make her leaders brave,
And guide the path toward human rights and all your children save.
Be merciful, bring justice now, O hear our urgent plea:
Preserve Uganda's future hope, and set her people free.

At last may dawn the day we seek, where love has naught to fear
And every lover truth may speak, and find your kin-dom near.
Be merciful, bring justice now, O hear our urgent plea:
Preserve Uganda's future hope, and set her people free.

David has called it "Preserve Uganda's Future Hope," which is very ungainly, so I'm retitling it here simply as "Uganda, the Beautiful." I'm rarely touched by songs like this, I admit, probably because I have an aversion to recycling familiar songs in order to get across a message that might be opposite to the original intent ("Forward Through the Ages" for "Onward, Christian Soldiers" is one of the few I really appreciate), but I felt moved by our singing and while that may have been partly because the lyricist was in attendance I suspect it was also because the lyrics were appropriate to Mark's message about acceptance of diversity and the difficulty of preaching it in Uganda. I experienced a thrill of being someplace something important was happening.