The Secretary’s Newsletter

No.93: Summer 2022
From the Secretary:
Revd Robert A. Canham
Windrush
Braithwaite
KESWICK
CA12 5SZ
Phone: 017687 78054

Email: Please see our Contact page

The 2022 Lancaster Hymn Society Conference

We met! After three long years, we met! Despite desperate attempts by weather, rail, the hotel industry and the government to prevent us meeting, sixty of us met – from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, from France, Nigeria and the USA – we met! And what a Conference it was: seven Lectures, four Sectionals, six Short Metre contributions, an innovative session singing Members’ Hymn Choices – so well-received it will doubtless to be repeated, and a remarkable contribution from our contingent from Nigeria. And then there was that Festival of Hymns in Blackburn Cathedral – see the back page.

HSUSC International Hymn Conference

Just prior to our own Conference in July, HSUSC (The Hymn Society in the US and Canada) celebrated their Centennial Year hosting the International Hymn Societies’ Conference in Washington, DC; there were twelve participating countries from six of the seven continents (it seems there were no representatives from Antarctica!). It was, by all accounts, a wonderful occasion which, amongst other things, featured, four Hymn Festivals. A few of our own members, along with a few from IAH, were able to attend.

HSUSC’s 2023 Conference, focusing on the theme, Land, Language, and Liberation, will gather in Montréal, Canada.

Included with this Newsletter:

With the Summer Bulletin mailing taking place post-Conference, it has been possible to include from the AGM, both the Secretary’s Report & Accounts for the Year Ended 31/12/2021 and the AGM Minutes. The Autumn Bulletin mailing will include Gordon Giles’ Festival of Hymns Commentary from Blackburn Cathedral, together with the Festival of Hymns booklet.

We welcome new members who recently joined the Society:

Miss Lesley Futter (Derbyshire)
Dr Nicola Neary (London)
Mr Keith Walton (Walsall, West Midlands)
Ms Stacie S. Withers (Manningtree, Essex)

We regret having to report the deaths of members:

Mr Spencer W. Freeman (Eastbourne, East Sussex)
Dr Anthony C. Hart (Dudley, West Midlands)

We welcome new members joining the Society via IAH

Dr Jón Hjörleifur Stefánsson (ICELAND)
Ms Jin Kyung Yoo (SOUTH KOREA)

A Harvest Hymn from the 1950s

Kenneth F. Bowden became a Life Member of The Hymn Society of Gt Britain & Ireland (when these were available) on 12^th June 1965; verified on a handwritten receipt signed by none other than John Wilson himself. Ken is one of just two remaining Life Members. The Harvest Hymn below was written by a very young Ken, some 66 years ago. His local Methodist home Circuit used to have an annual Youth Eisteddfod with competitions; this hymn won 1^st Prize in 1956.

The harvest cometh once again;
    rejoice in song so rare;
for God hath blessed the earth with crops,
    O praise him everywhere.

To God whose bounty is so great,
    in hymns of praise we share;
for ripened grain and fruits and flowers
    we praise him everywhere.

Our hands have sown the seed for him
    in fallow ground so bare;
his rain and sun so richly blessed:
    O praise him everywhere.

We trusted that the hand of God
    would bless our toil and care;
and as we bring our harvest home,
    we praise him everywhere.

We pray that God will lead us on
    to seek his harvest fare;
that young and old, from every clime
    may praise him everywhere.

Hymn Society Conference 2023

Explorations remain at a very preliminary stage, however, it is hoped that we may be able to meet on one of the campuses of the University of Lincoln (we have never held a Conference in Lincoln before) and that according to availability, it will be held during one of the last two weeks in July.

Bless ‘em All, Bless ‘em All,
The Long and the Short and the Tall

Photos of the Secretary are not normally (if ever) included in the Secretary’s Newsletter, however, this picture, taken with our Nigerian brothers and sister at our 2022 Conference in Lancaster, showed just how diminutive and short the Secretary really is! (pictured here wearing the colourful Nigerian top presented to him). Reminiscent, perhaps, of that iconic picture of the Queen standing between Barak and Michelle Obama or, maybe, of Gulliver beside the giants of Brobdingnag in Gulliver’s Travels!

Pictured from left to right: Falode, Ifunanya, the Secretary and Lanre Delano

In an appreciative email following Conference, Lanre Delano said: ‘On behalf of Ifunanya, Falode and the rest of the CHOPIN (Church Organ Projects in Nigeria) family in Nigeria, I say a big thank you…  We gained tremendously from the lectures regarding hymnody which was climaxed by the Festival of Hymns at the Blackburn Cathedral. The singing and the organ playing at the cathedral was a wonderful experience. Mention should be made about our feeding and accommodation which was perfect… Everybody embraced us. We cannot wait to get back to Nigeria to share our experience and to further promote the vision of HSGBI.’

Revd David Fox (1956-2008) archive?

URC Minister Revd David Fox went missing on a solitary walking holiday in Slovenia in June 2008. A much-loved pastor, administrator and committed ecumenist, David was also a member of The Hymn Society of Gt Britain & Ireland and a gifted hymn writer. Last July, as part of our Hymn of the Day series, I contributed a reflection on his hymn: At the dawning of creation.

David published two collections of hymns, the first being Thy Various Praise (the title taken from Isaac Watts’ hymn My God, my king, thy various praise shall fill the remnant of my days), contained 26 hymns written from 1983-1986. His second collection, Thy Various Praise, Hymns 1983–1995 contained 67 hymns, including those in the first collection. David also, as a Welsh-speaker, published a collection of 24 Welsh hymns together with his own English translations. Disappointingly, only three of David’s 67 hymns have entered main collections; there is a lot of treasure still awaiting discovery!

At the time of his presumed death, David would have had copies of his publications together with, one would imagine, original manuscripts relating to his hymn writing. Does anybody know what became of his archive material and whether it is retained safely somewhere? Please contact the Secretary if you have any information.

A ‘Hymnathon’ of a Festival

One member described it as a ‘Hymnathon’. It was certainly an ‘Epic’ on the scale of Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments (1956). Three years without meeting, much of that time with singing banned from Church Worship, this was a memorable, monumental occasion. Containing thirteen pieces, a masterly Commentary prepared and delivered by Gordon Giles, redolent with history, local connectivity, but also modern and topical, touching on Ukraine, Climate Change, the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, the ethos of the Society at its best, and with magnificent organ accompaniment by John Kitchen, it will have been unforgettable to everyone present.

I was reminded of The Church’s one foundation by Samuel John Stone (1839-1900), originally running to seven 8-line verses, it was extended by a further three in 1885 for a Processional in Salisbury Cathedral. All ten verses were then sung at each of the three Lambeth Conference festival services in the Cathedrals of Canterbury and St Paul’s, London, and in Westminster Abbey. One of those present said ‘It made them feel weak at the knees, their legs trembled, and they really felt as though they were going to collapse.’