Secretary’s Newsletter 92 Spring 2022
The Secretary’s Newsletter
No.92: Spring 2022
From the Secretary:
Revd Robert A. Canham
Windrush
Braithwaite
KESWICK
CA12 5SZ
Phone: 017687 78054
Email: Please see our Contact page
The Hymn Society 2022 Annual Conference CHANGE OF VENUE
Due to entirely unforeseen, some may feel extraordinary, circumstances, our Conference, due to resume after three long years, has now had to be relocated!
Fortunately, Lancaster University, who hosted our 2012 Conference very satisfactorily, has been extremely helpful and been able to accommodate us. Apart from the change of venue, everything, dates (Tuesday 26th July – Friday 29th July) etc., remain the same and we will still be able to hold our Festival of Hymns in Blackburn Cathedral. All in all, it should prove to be a satisfactory outcome to a somewhat trying situation and should prove easily accessible by rail. Whilst the university campus is relatively flat, the lecture hall is a short distance away from the other facilities. It will therefore involve about a nine- minute walk. We are tweaking the programme to accommodate this and should also be able to provide transport to any who need it.
As to the erstwhile Preston Leyland Hotel, they advised us that they were closing with immediate effect and with no known re-opening date. It seems to be the only hotel in the Group which is closing and, apparently, a popular venue. However, everything has been terminated, including Wedding Receptions and the like. Whilst the hotel has been reticent in communicating any reason, we have heard, confirmed by local media, that it appears to have been requisitioned by the government to house refugees.
Importantly, with less restrictions on numbers, we could now take more. If you are thinking of coming, please get in touch with me. We do, however, need to know by about the end of May if possible. We already have just over fifty people coming!
We welcome new members who recently joined the Society:
Mr Gordon A. & Mrs Julie Bell (Aberdeen)
Ms Deborah Handley (Mission, CANADA)
Revd Michael Kemp (Swindon, Wiltshire)
Revd Rosemary Morton (London)
We regret having to report the deaths of members:
Mr Mike Harris (Stonehaven, Aberdeen-shire)
Revd Geoffrey J. Wrayford (Lympstone, Exmouth, Devon)
Mike, who died in February, joined the Society in 2008. Most notably he attended the IAH (European Hymn Society) Timisoara Conference in Romania in 2011 and was of considerable assistance in contributing translations of material from Romanian into English. Most recently, Mike had a letter published in Bulletin 307, Vol.23, No.2 (Spring 2021) which he began by expressing his appreciation of membership of the Society and the enrichment he received from the material published in the Bulletin. He went on to speak of the rich blessing he had received from Catherine Winkworth’s Lyra Germanica and through it the words, in translation, of Paul Gerhardt.
Geoffrey, another staunch supporter of The Hymn Society, was my predecessor as Secretary, serving from 1997 to 2003. My earliest memories of Geoffrey, however, go back to Chelmsford where he was Precentor of Chelmsford Cathedral. I didn’t know him then, but I do remember him processing into the cathedral, often with a huge grin on his face – evidently enjoying it very much! I was privileged, some years later, to get to know him personally, again with that infectious smile, when I joined The Hymn Society back in the 1990s.
Thomas H. Troeger
We were sorry to learn of the death of USA hymn writer Thomas H. Troeger (77), on 3rd April. Throughout his life, Thomas Troeger made an enormous impact as hymn writer, preacher, homiletics professor, theologian, poet, musician, columnist and author. HymnQuest, in the UK, lists over 250 of his hymns, many of them remarkable, published in his collections: Borrowed Light (1999); Above the Moon Earth Rises (2002); God, you made all things for singing (2009); and Song that Blesses Earth (2015) all published by Oxford University Press.
Our best wishes
To our member, Michael Gisbourne, Canon Precentor of Ripon Cathedral, who has recently assumed responsibility as Interim Chair of Praxis.
‘Amazing Grace and its legacies: reflections at 250’ Registration, which is free, is now open for this Conference co- hosted by The Open University’s Music Department, the Cowper & Newton Museum, and Olney Parish Church. The Conference, taking place Friday 15th and Saturday 16th July 2022 (10.00 – 17.30 both days) at Walton Hall, The Open University and Olney Parish Church, is part of a year-long programme of events to commemorate the 250th anniversary of ‘Amazing Grace’, widely believed to have first been sung at Olney on 1st January 1773. The Conference will feature keynote lectures by Prof. Bruce Hindmarsh and Prof. Anthony Reddie, a roundtable discussion on the hymn Amazing Grace and its legacies, and papers presented by scholars in music, theology and religion, history, literature. The Conference Organizer is our member Dr Martin V. Clarke. The deadline for participant registration is 8th July 2022 (for in-person attendance) and 11th July 2022 (for online only). For more information and details of how to register see: https://fass. open. ac. uk/research/conferences/amazing-grace
Newton Tony (Salisbury) Vintage Hymns Day
Although still early March, the sun was shining in the peaceful English village of Newton Tony for a day of classic hymn singing, attended by nearly 70 people from around the country. Fortified by tea, coffee and home-made cake kindly provided by the local team, a selection of some of the greatest English hymns was sung: “Praise, my soul, the King of heaven”, followed by “O God, our Help in Ages past”. Later in the day “Eternal Father! strong to save”, “Guide me O Thou Great Jehovah”, and “And can it be, that I should gain”, and more. The afternoon concluded with a Book of Common Prayer Sung Evensong led by the rector Revd Peter Ostli-East, where everyone took part in the sung responses, and metrical versions of the psalm, Magnificat, and Nunc Dimittis, using metrical settings that would have been typical of a country church, instead of the more elaborate settings used in cathedrals. A group of singers, drawn from those attending, sang Tallis’ “If ye love me” as the anthem. Over lunch, Canon Rosalind Brown spoke on the history and future of Hymns Ancient & Modem, and there were publications, CDs, and antiquarian hymn books available for sale. From the feedback received it appears the occasion was much enjoyed.
A further “Vintage Hymns” event took place at Beckenham Baptist Church on Saturday 14th May.
See this page for details of a Hymns Ancient & Modern weekend of singing in Monkland on Saturday 30th and Sunday 31st July, just after The Hymn Society Conference.
A New Hymn Collection from Jubilate
Until Your Earth is Whole (Hymns for our contemporary world) is a new collection of twelve Jubilate hymns, bringing a fresh perspective to some of the dominant themes of our contemporary world, including social justice, mental health, the refugee crisis, the environment, and truth. The hymn texts (including three by Hymn Society members and two by Ally Barrett who will be lecturing at our Conference in July), are set to a mixture of new music and existing classic hymn tunes. Each of the twelve hymns has a full text which can be viewed online, also individual piano scores, lyric videos and mp3 downloads etc. which can be purchased for a small cost. A printed Songbook containing piano scores for all twelve hymns is also available for £8.99 + p. & p. to be posted separately.
For full details or the collection and to access the resources go to: www.jubilate.co.uk/untilyourearthiswhole
or contact Roger Peach, Until Your Earth is Whole Project Co-ordinator, Email: roger@jubilate.co.uk
Hymns in strange places
In 2011 a friend of our member, John Crothers, had just completed a visit to Tibet and gone on to visit the panda-breeding institute in Chengdu in the People’s Republic of China. Being a Northern Irishman and well versed in the things of the Church, he was astonished to see, in atheistic China, familiar words from his homeland featuring prominently on a large poster. As John observes: ‘Wouldn’t Cecil Frances have been amazed! And isn’t it significant that the last, explanatory line has been deliberately omitted?’
