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Bernadette Farrell is known throughout the world for her challenging texts and memorable melodies. Yet she says, ‘Writing wasn’t my intention or plan. It was a practical response to the needs around me.’ This response has made her one of the most popular composers of liturgical music, and her song Christ be our light one of the best-loved songs of the last twenty years.
As part of her strong commitment to justice and peace, Bernadette works with people of all denominations. For many years she has worked as a community organiser for London Citizens. This is
a reflection of her commitment to work shoulder to shoulder with those struggling for adequate housing, a living wage, proper community policing, access to quality health services, and so on.
One of Bernadette’s recent songs, ‘Alleluia, Raise The Gospel’, epitomises the spirit of her current music and the challenges she has laid down for herself to make the world a better place:
(1) engage creatively with the decision makers in one's neighbourhood, town and country;
(2) embrace and promote a theology that inspires people to imagine a new future; and
(3) work to create new economic institutions for our new global situation.
As Bernadette says, ‘If we do nothing, we will not have a planet fit to hand on to our children.’ This book collects almost all Bernadette’s published songs, nearly 80 in all, dating from the 1970s to the present day. A bonus is the inclusion of seven new and previously unpublished pieces, including two sets of Eucharistic acclamations.
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