Celebrating July 4th


We are approaching the July 4th celebration of our country’s independence, a day typically filled with flags, fireworks, picnics, family gatherings and maybe a little chest pounding. 

The Song of Peace, written by Lloyd Stone in 1934 and sung to the melody of the “Finlandia” hymn, is a reminder that we are not so unique; that everyone everywhere shares our hopes and dreams for peace and prosperity.  Until everyone enjoys the ‘inalienable rights’ we so often take for granted, we cannot truly be free.   In what ways do you enjoy freedom that others may not?  How has God blessed you?


                                           The Song of Peace
This is my song, Oh God of all the nations,
A song of peace for lands afar and mine.
This is my home, the country where my heart is;
Here are my hopes, my dreams, my sacred shrine.
But other hearts in other lands are beating,
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean,
And sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine.
But other lands have sunlight too and clover,
And skies are everywhere as blue as mine.
Oh hear my song, oh God of all the nations,
A song of peace for their land and for mine.

May truth and freedom come to every nation;
may peace abound where strife has raged so long;
that each may seek to love and build together,
a world united, righting every wrong;
a world united in its love for freedom,
proclaiming peace together in one song.

Kathy Flynn, Candidate

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