There’s a sweet, sweet Spirit in this place

There's a sweet, sweet Spirit in this place. Doris Akers* (1922-1995). Written in 1962, when Akers was directing the Sky Pilot Choir. She has related that the choir was praying one Sunday morning before the service; Akers asked them to pray again, and the atmosphere became so charged that they delayed the start, but not before Akers herself had said that ‘There is such a sweet, sweet Spirit in this place’. The song came to her on the Monday morning; it has since become the best known of many gospel songs by Akers. A choral setting has been made by Kurt Kaiser*. The song draws upon the theology of the Charismatic tradition by stressing manifestations of the presence of the Holy Spirit, for...