As we look at another New Year’s Day, it’s a good time to reflect on a song that unites rather than divides us: the Rev. John Newton’s hymn “Amazing Grace.” The hymn first appeared in Newton’s New ...

“Amazing grace,” intoned the eulogist, and repeated it. He began to sing: “how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me,” and the congregation, a bit startled, joined in, as the pianist scrambled ...

This New Year’s Day marked the 250th anniversary of one of the most enduring hymns of all time. Around the world, choirs, community groups and individuals came together to sing Amazing Grace to ...

"I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I hope to be. But by the grace of God, I am certainly not what I was." -- John Newton Christopher Smith had never heard of John Newton when, with a little ...

AMAZING GRACE: A Cultural History of the Beloved Hymn. By James Walvin. University of California Press. 216 pages. $19.95. When President Obama sang “Amazing Grace” at the funeral of the Rev. Clementa ...

(RNS) — James Walvin, a former Church of England choirboy and professor of history at the University of York, doesn’t remember encountering “Amazing Grace,” in song or in his hymnal. It wasn’t until ...

Despite its bucolic name, the quiet hamlet of Sandy Point Town, St. Kitts, on a friendly island in the West Indies, has a history written in blood. In the 18th century, Sandy Point offered Caribbean ...

In Hollywood parlance, they call it “medicine”: a movie or TV show that’s good for you, that teaches you something, that hopefully leaves you inspired. “Amazing Grace,” which opened Thursday at the ...