SATB Chorus, Alto Solo & Piano (2023)

Text by Paul Zach, Kate Bluett, Isaac Wardell
Text copyright © 2022 Integrity Worship Music/PG Songs and Hymns.
All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Based on a searing text by Christian Contemporary artists Paul Zach, Kate Bluett, and Isaac Wardell, All Creatures Lament: Hymn for a Suffering Planet reimagines the hymn All Creatures of our God and King as a visceral outcry against the environmental destruction that has been—and is being—wrought by humankind. Each verse focuses on an area of creation that we as humans have injured or defiled—the air, the seas, the land—painting a vivid picture of how we have neglected our duty to care for them, but each time culminating in an impassioned cry of “Lord, have mercy” in the hope that there may yet be a remedy. Mixing American folk and hymn-style choral writing with modes drawn from Eastern chant, Sheehan’s setting of this text presents listeners with the stark reality of what we as a society and as a species now face today, but it also gives us all a chance to transform our fear, shame, and anger into an act of corporate prayer and artistry. Says Sheehan: “If there is to be hope for our suffering planet and for us who live on it, I believe it will come from a renewed understanding of how we as humans can strive together for beauty. I offer All Creatures Lament: Hymn for a Suffering Planet as an image of what that might look like.”

LISTEN