The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #59896   Message #2649578
Posted By: Azizi
05-Jun-09 - 09:03 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Here Am I Oh Lord Send Me (John Hurt)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here Am I Oh Lord Send Me (John Hurt)
Fwiw, the "If You Can Not Speak Like Peter" verse found above is also used for the spiritual "There Is A Balm In Gilead." My church choir in New Jersey used these words:

If you can not pray like Peter
If you cannot preach like Paul
You can tell the love of Jesus
And how he died for all.

-snip-

Also, for what it's worth, I have no knowledge at all of the spiritual that is the subject of this thread (meaning I've never heard it sung in my church or in any other church or on any religious recording). This is reflective of my sense that only a small number of African American spirituals are still sung in many African American churches-at least in the North. Note that this is just my opinion-and I limit that opinion to the North since I know very little about other regions of the USA. But I wouldn't be surprised it that wasn't true throughout the USA since at least the 1980s.