My "comic worship oratorio", Jonah was a prophet (minor), is an interpretation (musical and textual) of the Book of Jonah, one of the 12 minor prophets whose booklets comprise the Book of the Twelve in the Hebrew Scriptures. Most of these booklets are mostly prophecy per se, much of it rather nationalistic, but Jonah is a humorous short story with an anti-chauvinistic theme. It makes fun of those (like Jonah) who think God would be well advised to be less merciful. It's got to be the funniest book in the Bible, in my estimation.

The "oratorio" consists of the reading of the whole text of the Book of Jonah, with songs interspersed. Here's the order of worship (sic):

JONAH WAS A PROPHET (MINOR)
Or,
GILBERT & SULLIVAN MEET GOD ALMIGHTY

(Leland Bryant Ross)

CONTENTS

Jonah 1:1-2
Jonah was a prophet (minor), Austria
Jonah 1:3
Run, Jonah, run, Tidings
Jonah 1:4-7
On a swift Phœnician trader, Hyfrydol
The Phœnician merchant tar, British Grenadiers
But this was no ordinary hurricane...
Almighty Moloch, strong to save, Melita
What shall we do?, Du Store Gud [How Great Thou Art]
Jonah 1:8-9
Praise to the living God (Yigdal Elohim Chai), Leoni (Yigdal)
Jonah 1:10-13
Still the sailors were reluctant, Regent Square
Jonah 1:14-16
El Shaddai, to the Card & Thompson tune but different words*
Jonah 1:17 - 2:9
The Ribs and Terrors in the Whale, from Moby-Dick, Old 100th
Joppa, Joppa, here I come, right back where I started from...
Jonah 2:10 - 3:10
Bow, bow, ye Ninevitic masses, March of the Peers (from Iolanthe)
Jonah 4:1-5
O LORD, my God, how could you be so thoughtless, Du Store Gud
Jonah 4:6-11
'Neath a tree by a river a prophet of God, Tit-Willow (from The Mikado)

© 1997 Liland Brajant Ros'