It was approaching summer 2020 when my co-writer, Brad Wilson and I talked about the pandemic lockdown and how oppressive it was generally. We wondered how long it would last as we spoke of lack of earnings and our mutual yearnings; yearning most of all for a return to church to partake in the sweet communion of the Divine Liturgy as we are both Orthodox Christians. At the end Brad encouraged, "Not to worry mate, hopefully it will soon be over." I fired back with a kind of melodic metaphor, "Yeah, then we can step out in the sunlight". Brad ran with it and to my surprise soon called me up to introduce a new song. I was amazed! At first, we called it Step Out focussing on what I had said to him in our last conversation but then the first line threw me. It ran, "Like Moses in the wilderness..." but sounded like "Black Moses in the wilderness..." to me. Hence that's what I recorded and sent it back to him. We both laughed and thought ok let
“It is true that Christians pay religious honor to the memory of the martyrs, both to excite us to imitate them and to obtain a share in their merits, and the assistance of their prayers. But we build altars not to any martyr, but to the God of martyrs, although it is to the memory of the martyrs. No one officiating at the altar in the saints' burying-place ever says, We bring an offering to you, O Peter! Or O Paul! Or O Cyprian! The offering is made to God, who gave the crown of martyrdom, while it is in memory of those thus crowned. The emotion is increased by the associations of the place, and love is excited both towards those who are our examples, and towards Him by whose help we may follow such examples.” “We regard the martyrs with the same affectionate intimacy that we feel towards holy men of God in this life, when we know that their hearts are prepared to endure the same suffering for the truth of the gospel. There is more devotion in our feeling towards the martyrs, beca