Lyr Add: Building Bridges Between Our Divisions

Subject: Lyr Add: Building Bridges Between Our Divisions
From: Joe Offer
Date: 02 Feb 17 - 12:52 AM

I'm researching and documenting all the songs in the Rise Up Singing Songbook. This interesting round has a familiar tune. Is it more-or-less the Peace Round, or is there another round that's more similar to this one

BUILDING BRIDGES
(Greenham Common Women)

Building bridges between our divisions,
I reach out to you, will you reach out to me?
With all of our voices and all of our visions,
Friends, we could make such sweet harmony.


Notes from Worship in Song: A Friends Hymnal, #316: These words were sung at the lengthy women's encampment at the Greenham Common in England in the early 1980s. The women were protesting the arrival and ultimate installation of U.S. nuclear missiles. The words have since been woven into the Quaker tapestry as representing the aims of the FWCC 5th World Conference of Friends in 1991.

Worship in Song and Rise Up Singing both use the exact lyrics posted above.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5b6CqIejPg

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Building Bridges Between Our Divisions
From: Felipa
Date: 02 Feb 17 - 09:11 PM

I'd forgotten that song, but now that you bring it up, we used to sing "I reach out to you AS ou reach out to me" and"SISTERS we can make such a sweet harmony"
Choice of word depends on the context of the singing and the make-up of your group. I remember another option, "TOGETHER we can make ..."
Anyway, I can confirm that this song was sung by women's and anti-nuclear groups.

I'll have to listen to the tune later and see whether or not it's familiar.

I always liked "you can't kill the spirit, she/it is like a mountain, old and strong, It goes on and on and on, You can't kill the spirit ..."[repeat as many times as you like]

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Building Bridges Between Our Divisions
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Feb 17 - 02:00 AM

Thanks, Felipa -
Worship in Song is a Quaker hymnal, and the editors of Rise Up Singing are Quaker. I imagine that's why the use of "friends" in the lyrics I posted, which have the last line:

Friends, we could make such sweet harmony.

Not "such a sweet" - I had that wrong and corrected it.

-Joe-