It's time for new T-shirts and polo shirts for my congregation--the last ones came out several years ago. I still have my T-shirt and fleece hoodie from then. But I was a tad shocked at the new design, above, which features the phrase, "Tell Out My Soul," in bright blue and red and in a much bigger font than the church name, in basic black. Our pastor, the Rev. Terri Peterson, is a Lutheran--something that has only been possible since the 2001 agreement between the U.S. Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church, which established full communion between the two denominations. And she's been diligent in maintaining the Anglican tradition. Since she became pastor seven years ago, I'm seeing new faces in the congregation, so she must be doing something right.
But sometimes, the Evangelical side of her comes out, as I believed it did when I saw the new shirts. I responded that I could never wear a shirt bearing that legend. I'm a fairly reserved, introverted Episcopalian for whom "Tell Out My Soul" is just not appropriate. Pastor Terri graciously agreed to offer shirts with just the church name.
But after my wife asked me where the phrase originated, I turned to Google, which gave me an answer that surprised me--it's relatively recent and it's thoroughly Anglican. It's the first line of a 1961 hymn by Timothy Dudley-Smith (1926-2024) an Anglican priest, who later served as Bishop of Norwich from 1981 to 1992. It's based on a paraphrase of the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) from the New English Bible. It begins, "Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord." It's sung to the tune, "Woodlands," composed in 1916 by Walter Greatorex.
So, after finding out that the phrase, at least with an added comma, is as Anglican as Whitsunday, am I going to order the shirt? Nope--I'm sticking with the blue shirt with the church name only. Anglican as it is, it still sounds too Evangelical for me.
