7 profound hymns for Holy Week
6. ‘Were you there?’
A popular African-American spiritual first published at the close of the 19th century, "Were You There?" has been in most every major hymnal over the past three decades, according to North Park Theological Seminary professor David Bjorlin.
"The series of questions that forms the basis of the song is obviously not meant to be taken literally," wrote Bjorlin. "Rather, the questions are meant to function as a form of anamnesis. From the Greek, anamnesis literally means to remember."
“Yet, it is much more than simple mental recall of an event. It calls the community to re-member the past to the present, to bring these historic events to bear on the now and make them part of our story.”
