By: Johanna Rehbaum (aka Pastor Johanna!)
Beloved Christmas carols may depict Mary, the mother of Jesus, as “meek and mild,” but the Magnificat, her famous song, sung after the angel’s announcement that she is pregnant with the Messiah, shows that she is anything but! It is truly a revolutionary song, proclaiming a redistribution of wealth and the overturning of corrupt power structures. German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer called it, “the most passionate, the wildest, one might even say the most revolutionary hymn ever sung.” No wonder that multiple corrupt governments in history have banned Mary’s words from being sung or spoken! It has long empowered the oppressed and impoverished masses, and given them hope for a future in which the tyrants do not win.
Rory Cooney’s paraphrase of Mary’s words aim to capture this spirit. The repeated declaration that “the world is about to turn” stirs in both the singer’s and the listener’s hearts the same intense, driving hope and anticipation Mary felt upon hearing that the savior for whom the world had waited was indeed coming – and that, incredibly, she would be a part of bringing the rescue plan to life.
Turning, Joni Jensen’s rollicking treble voices setting of Cooney’s paraphrase, takes that anticipation to the next level. Cooney’s pairing of the text with a traditional Irish tune already makes the hearer want to dance with joy, but Jensen brings that joy together with the terror and disorientation that also come when everything is about to be turned upside-down. The future is both known and unknown – and so we ride the wave of unabashed hope and trust that whatever
is ahead will be better than the oppressive present. Jensen’s setting beautifully melds the sweetness and the tension of that anticipation.
As we look around at a world still longing for justice, Mary’s words, and Rooney’s paraphrase of them, remain just as relevant. Though our particular circumstances differ from those of the original singer* of this revolutionary song, we hope that hearing our performance of Jensen’s Turning will ignite and inspire our audience to be a part of bringing a better, more just world into
being. “Wipe away all tears, for the dawn draws near – and the world is about to turn!”
We look forward to presenting this piece at our concerts in December 2026, and invite you to join us!
Please save the dates:
Friday, December 11, 2026: 7:30pm at First Presbyterian Church of Pittsford
Sunday, December 13, 2026: 3pm at Downtown United Presbyterian Church
*Actually, Mary’s song is also a paraphrase of one of her forebears; Hannah sings a similar song when she learns she is pregnant with Samuel, in 1 Samuel 2:1-10.
