The historic Methodist church on the next block

[SharonClark]

just played “Morning Has Broken” by Cat Stevens to chime the noon hour. It was lovely.

The church, Grace United Methodist, serenades the neighborhood at noon and 6 pm daily and chimes the hours. It was the home church of vice-president and ag pioneer Henry Wallace. There is a peace memorial honoring Wallace and George Washington Carver on the grounds. As churches go, this is one of the good ones.

[Rhiannon12866]

1. It's also a hymn

It's an Easter hymn and was one of my mother's favorites and I chose it for her funeral, which the priest supported, despite my getting criticism from friends/family that this was a Cat Stevens song.

[mtngirl47]

2. Morning has broken is now stuck in my head!

[bobbieinok]

3. Eleanor Farjean wrote that hymn. Won the1st Hans Christian Anderson Award for childrens lit 1955

Wrote many books, poems. Not all for children by any means

Wikipedia article on her makes me want to read some of her works

Note--I recognized her name when I saw the author's name because I associated the name with childrens literature

[diva77]

4. She set the words to a Scottish folk melody.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunessan_(hymn_tune)

Bunessan is a hymn tune based on a Scottish folk melody, first associated with the Christmas carol "Child in the Manger"[1] and later and more commonly with "Morning Has Broken". It is named for the village of Bunessan in the Ross of Mull.
SNIP
Sometime before 1927 Alexander Fraser heard the melody in the Scottish Highlands and wrote it down so that it came to the attention of Percy Dearmer, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Martin Shaw. In turn, these editors of the hymn book Songs of Praise requested Eleanor Farjeon to write a further hymn text to the tune. This was "Morning Has Broken", and since 1931 the tune has become most familiarly identified with this hymn.[6] In 1971, a version of "Morning Has Broken" was recorded by British singer Cat Stevens, helping popularize the tune.
SNIP

[Midnight Writer]

5. Trivia point. Rick Wakeman wrote and performed the piano part on Cat Steven's recording.

They had a falling out when Stevens promised a song writing credit to Wakeman, then reneged.