E: Welcome, Bob. It says in my briefing notes that the hymn is suitable for marriages, because of the Bind us together phrase, which we get to sing a total of fifteen times (or perhaps twenty if the chorus is repeated at the end).
This is what makes marriage so popular.
BG: Yes, indeed. I wrote the tune myself, as well. You may have noticed that it also doubles as a funeral march: I was hoping to enter it for the Eccles boring tune award.
E: Well, you'd be a strong candidate, certainly. Let's explore the words a bit more. You want us to be bound together with cords that cannot be broken. That's a profound theological insight.
BG: My spiritual adviser told me that it was better than asking for "cords that just might get broken."
An enthusiastic parishioner verifying that the cords cannot be broken.
E: Well, Bind us together with love seems to be O.K. I'm glad you finally got away from the rope motif.
BG: My next verse was very easy to write. There is only one God/King/Body, you see.
E: Yes, you're taking this nice and gently, I must admit. Not exactly hitting us with a blizzard of deep theological concepts.
BG: If you wanted more verses, I have recently discovered that There is only one Father/Son/Spirit as well. Or there's only one Paul Inwood (although that seems like too many).
E: I think that would make the hymn a little too exciting. Luckily we have another Bind us together chorus to calm us down again.
Some worshippers bound for church.
BG: Yes, and then after that the hymn really does take off. Born with the right to be clean, for example.
E: Of course, the way that verse is written we can't tell exactly who is born with the right to be clean. Grammatically, it turns out to be Jesus, but that can't be what you meant.
BG: It's us, Eccles. I forgot to mention it.
Born with the right to be clean.
E: Well, we'll wrap this up now. There's another dose of confusion in the last verse with You are the glorious new wine, where I suppose "you" means "we," but it's not worth worrying about.
BG: So, shall we, very slowly, sing the chorus again? Bind us together...
E: Yes, why not? Probably, the only thing that most people remember of this hymn is that it's a real bind.
Actually, we like the hymn very much.
Previous entries for the Eccles Bad Hynm Award:
Lord of the Dance. Shine, Jesus, shine. Enemy of apathy. Walk in the Light.
Kum Ba Yah. Follow me. God's Spirit is in my heart. Imagine. Alleluia Ch-ch.
It ain't necessarily so. I, the Lord of sea and sky. Colours of day. The red flag.
Go, the Mass is ended. I watch the sunrise.
