The Secretary’s Newsletter

No.94: Autumn 2022
From the Secretary:
Revd Robert A. Canham
Windrush
Braithwaite
KESWICK
CA12 5SZ
Phone: 017687 78054

Email: Please see our Contact page

The 250^th Anniversary of ‘Amazing Grace’: 1^st January 2023
“Oh, it was mercy indeed to save a wretch like me!”

John Newton wrote these words in his journal on 21^st March 1796 (at the age of 70), 48 years after his conversion.

He had never forgotten that “great turning day” in 1748 when, as an obstreperous, rebellious young man, he was surprised to hear himself crying out during a violent storm at sea, “The Lord have mercy on us!”

For it was on that day he discovered, “How precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed.”

Every year that followed, he kept 21^st March apart as a day of remembrance, for thanksgiving, fasting and prayer.

The words of Amazing Grace were etched on Newton’s heart daily. But it is assumed that he first wrote the hymn for his New Year’s Morning sermon of 1^st January 1773, for it fits his sermon notes so closely and the text he chose to write above the hymn in the Olney Hymns, 1 Chronicles 17:16,17, is identical to the sermon’s text.

Fortuitously for us, 1^st January 2023 falls on a Sunday. So, if you are a Worship Leader or responsible for selecting hymns, please try to ensure that Amazing Grace is sung with a word of explanation, or encourage whoever is leading Worship that day to include it.

Some of the words have been either changed or added to over the years. The enclosed flyer contains the hymn as it was originally penned by John Newton. For more information on John Newton and Amazing Grace, see The John Newton Project:

www.johnnewton.org/amazinggrace

We welcome a new member who recently joined the Society:

Mr Colin Bell (Co Tyrone, Northern Ireland) 

We regret having to report the death of a member:

Revd Michael Haighton (Rugby, Warwickshire)

Michael died on 18^th August. He had been a member of The Hymn Society for over twenty years and, along with his wife Barbara, well-known as regular attendees at our Conferences. Many will hold good memories of him and remember him with affection. One of Michael’s  hymns, When God begins a work of grace within our hearts, is included in Praise! (2000). Michael fought a monumental battle with cancer with determination and cheerfulness and continued preaching as long as he was able, leading his last service on 7^th August. Please continue to remember Barbara in your prayers.

Instrumental parts for hymns

Our member, Tim Hicks, continues to write instrumental parts for hymns and songs which are used in the church where he and his wife worship. He has now amassed, with the help of others, well over 1,100 hymns. He is willing to email, on request, a list of tunes (suitable for voice, flute or violin mostly), to anyone who would like a copy. His main reference points are Hymns Ancient & Modern (2013) and Songs of Fellowship (1991).

For further information, email Tim Hicks at: timlizhicks@gmail.com

Christmas 2022 ‘on air’

Those attending this year’s Lancaster Conference will recall our Festival of Hymns, a veritable tour de force, in Blackburn Cathedral with its magnificent organ, played for the occasion by our member Dr John P. Kitchen.

Our members Christine and Arton Medd, who live in Lancaster, have let me know that this year’s Christmas Services will be televised live from Blackburn Cathedral by the BBC (Christmas Eve beginning at 11.45 pm and Christmas Day beginning at 10.00 am). Choral Evensong on Radio Three is also being broadcast from Blackburn Cathedral on the Wednesday before Christmas. For those who were able to attend, an opportunity to be transported back to July and our much-awaited 2022 Conference!

Indices to The Hymn Society Bulletin

The latest edition of the Bulletin Index Volume XXII, covering Issues 294-306 (Winter 2018–Autumn 2020), is enclosed. Further copies, together with all the other paper Indices, are available from the Secretary. Some, though not the most recent, are also accessible via the Interactive Index on The Hymn Society website.

Vintage Hymns and Carols at Hampstead

On Saturday 26^th November, 2.00-5.00 pm there will be a ‘Vintage Hymns and Carols’ event, including mulled wine, tea and coffee, at Heath Street Baptist Church, Hampstead NW3 1DN, comprising an informal afternoon singing classic hymns and carols led by our member, Phil Price, of ‘With Cheerful Voice’. It is another opportunity to rediscover the joy of harmony hymn singing and an occasion for both singers (music readers or not) and instrument players. It is free but everyone is requested to register to facilitate provision of refreshments etc. You will also need to register (at Ticketsource) to download words and music free or pre-order a printed copy for £5.00. For more information: www.withcheerfulvoice.org.uk

Congregational Music Conference 2023

The Seventh Biennial Christian Congregational Music: Local and Global Perspectives Conference is taking place at Ripon College Cuddesdon, Oxford, UK from 1^st – 4^th August 2023. Proposals for individual papers (20 minutes), lightning talks (10 minutes) and other options are presently being accepted and must be received by 14 December 2022. For further information see:

https://congregationalmusic.org/call-papers-2023

For more about the Conference, the line-up of speakers etc., go to https://congregationalmusic.org and navigate from there.

A Hymn Question

I have received an enquiry from a member of HSUSC who also belongs to the American Guild of Organists. He is researching composers and arrangers included in the (American) Episcopal Hymnal (1982) and seeking the dates of those contributors who may have died since publication. In this connection he is requesting information about Kenneth Donald Smith (born 28^th September 1928 in Manchester). I have established that K.D. Smith was a one-time member of The Hymn Society (in the 1960s / 70s) who had a couple of both letters and articles published in the Bulletin.

He was Joint Music Editor of Sunday School Praise (1958) and The School Assembly (1958), to which he contributed many harmonisations and several tunes. Of the 13 tunes included in Sunday School Praise (1958), 10 are published under his own name and 3, curiously, under the pseudonym C.D. Faber. Only three of his tunes have found their way into other collections.

What I have not been able to establish is whether he is still alive or, if not, the date of his death. Is anybody able to offer any information about him? If so, please contact the Secretary.

IAH Conference and new President

At the recent short IAH Conference (8^th/9^th September 2022) held at the University of Mainz, Germany, there was a ‘changing of the guard’. Professor Jørgen Kjærgaard, after many years of service, stood down as president and in his stead, Pastorin Mag. Esther Handschin was elected as their new president.

Those attending our 2015 Cambridge International Conference of Hymn Societies may remember Esther who was an indispensable interpreter into German of my notices and Conference information!

Esther has been at the heart of IAH for many years. She was born in Frankfurt, Germany, and raised in Switzerland. Esther has served for more than twenty years in Austria as a Pastor of the United Methodist Church (UMC), presently in Vienna. She did her theological studies in Zürich, Switzerland, and Heidelberg, Germany. She was a member of the Committee for the German speaking Methodist Hymnbook (2002) published for use in the UMC in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. She is presently involved in the Working Group for Liturgy of the United Methodist Central Conference of Middle and Southern Europe and for the last five years she has served on the Board of the Ecumenical Council of Churches in Austria. We wish Esther every Blessing in this new role.

The Wesleys for modern ears
received from Laurence Wareing (Singing the Faith Plus)

Eternal Depth: 20 John Wesley hymns is a collection of twenty John Wesley hymns set to new melodies by Canadian musician Wendy Edwards Beardall-Norton and arranged by her husband, Christopher Norton; the intention being to give an opportunity for a new generation of worshippers to enter into the theology and experience that captivated John Wesley. They are not only an essential part of the heritage of the ‘People called Methodists’, but they are also a gift to the whole Christian community. The project was inspired by Revd Dr John Haley, a Methodist minister in the Launceston Area Circuit, who is committed to making even Wesley’s lesser-known hymn translations accessible and popular again. Reviewing the collection, the Revd Brian Hoare (one of our Hymn Society members), noted that the settings are “more traditional than contemporary in style” but that the tunes are “enhanced and have been given a more contemporary feel by Christopher Norton’s characteristically imaginative arrangements of his wife’s melodies.” The Collection may be purchased online at £25.00 from 80dayspublishing.com. Simply go to the website and search ‘Wesley’.