From Joe Hooper: “As beliefs develop, those who grew up in a liturgical faith often find it difficult to keep on using prayers and other worship texts which no longer cut the mustard. It’s possible to use them with fingers crossed, to drop them completely, or to replace or revise them. I prefer the last option, and have recently been re-working the Te Deum Laudamus for my own use.

This beautiful ancient praise hymn is used at Morning Prayer and on especially joyful occasions such as coronations, but its emphasis on the separate Persons of the Holy Trinity, and its references to the various ranks of angelic beings, can make it an awkward prayer for some. The version I’ve just completed removes some of these difficulties by emphasising the metaphorical nature of some of the references, and re-imagining other bits. It can still be sung to a plainchant tone.”

Here is a recording of Joe singing this:

TE DEUM LAUDAMUS

“We praise you O God:

unfailing friend and guide

Through whose creative presence:

day by day the cosmos comes alive.

We imagine angels:

praising you on high,

Where cherubim and seraphim:

continually cry:

Holy, Holy, Holy:

Highest, Truest, Best;

Heaven and earth:

are overflowing with your grace.

We picture the apostles:

casting down their golden crowns.

The martyrs and the prophets:

acclaiming you with joy,

We see at your right hand:

Jesus, Mary’s Son,

Who pursued divine perfection:

in obedience to your call.

Even on the cross:

he acted with compassion,

And dying for his vision:

raised mankind to the skies.

And what we chiefly know:

you also taught, dear brother,

That God has made no strangers:

so we must love each other.

Alleluia, alleluia:

Alleluia, alleluia,

Alleluia, alleluia:

Alleluia, alleluia”