Te Rangimarie

With the proliferation of commercial Christmas jingles in our shops, it’s good to have some home-grown and thoughtful Christmas songs to use in chapel. Here’s one written by Josh Jones the Christmas after the Christchurch mosque shootings, pointing towards the hope and peace promised by Christmas. Here’s what he has to say about it:

“The awesome response of Aotearoa New Zealand to the Christchurch Mosque shootings inspired me to write the Christmas Carol This is the Day – Te Rangimarie (Maori for peace). I feel  that the people of this country rewrote the script of how we respond to the forces of hatred and division and I wanted to celebrate how all the wonderful and diverse communities of NZ came together in the bonds of love. Ultimately this is what the Spirit of Christmas is all about. This is the day when hope came calling. A celebration of the light of unity and peace. It’s the spirit needed for our times.”