Amazing Grace

Public domain, so this verse can be printed in a script or an order of service. The rest of the hymn is in the book the venue sings from — printing a full hymn text is a separate permission from singing it.

John Newton wrote Amazing Grace to illustrate a sermon on New Year’s Day 1773, and it first appeared in print in 1779 in Olney Hymns, which he compiled with the poet William Cowper. In Olney Hymns it is Book I, Hymn 41, titled Faith’s Review and Expectation. It has been sung to more than twenty melodies, but since 1835 it has most often been joined to the tune New Britain.

The singer was lost and has been found, was blind and now sees, and it was grace that did it, not any merit of their own. Later verses look back over dangers and snares survived and forward to a life beyond death. Newton wrote it out of his own life, which had been rough and far from God, and the hymn has the plainness of someone telling the truth about themselves. It is about forgiveness and rescue as much as death.

The one a room full of people who never sing will still sing. Read at a funeral or memorial service. Themes: the best-known hymn · everyone can sing it · bagpipes · a graveside · comfort.

Almost any Christian funeral, and many that are only loosely Christian. It is the hymn a room of non-singers will still sing. It suits someone who turned their life around, someone who struggled with addiction or hardship, and families who want one song everybody knows. On bagpipes it suits military, police and fire service funerals, and outdoor graveside services. It can feel like a default; ask whether it was the person’s choice or just the familiar one.

Often the opening hymn, as the coffin is brought in, or the last hymn before the committal. A piper may play it at the graveside or as people leave. The congregation sings it; the officiant usually sits.

Sung through by the room, allow about 4 minutes, depending on how many verses the venue’s book carries and how slowly the organist takes it.

• Settle with the family which verses are sung. Many services use the first, third and last; do not leave it to the organist on the day.
• If there is no organist, a recording or a piper will carry it. Agree who starts it and on what cue.
• At a small graveside with no music, the first verse can be spoken instead. Read it slowly, as a statement of faith rather than a song.
• Do not stand at the front while it is sung. Sit, or stand to one side, and sing along if you know it.

All funeral readings →