Secretary’s Newsletter 97 Summer 2023
The Secretary’s Newsletter
No.97: Summer 2023
From the Secretary:
Revd Robert A. Canham
Windrush
Braithwaite
KESWICK
CA12 5SZ
Phone: 017687 78054
Email: Please see our Contact page
Conferences: Lincoln 2023 and High Leigh, Hoddesdon 2024
Following a very successful 2023 Conference in Lincoln with something over fifty people present, arrangements are now in place for next year’s Conference which will be at High Leigh Conference Centre, Hoddesdon from Tuesday, 23rd July – Friday, 26th July at £360.00. We are very grateful to those who have contributed generously to our Bursary Fund which will enable some, who might not otherwise have been able to come, to do so. Accommodation is likely to be limited, so please diarize the dates now, and apply swiftly when the Booking Form arrives.
The Three Choirs Festival
On the Wednesday afternoon during the week following our Lincoln Conference, BBC Radio 3’s Choral Evensong was broadcast from the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester Cathedral where our Treasurer, Revd Canon Michael Garland, is currently (in retirement!) Canon Succentor. As the opening responses wafted across the airwaves, I said to Jenny: ‘That’s not Michael’. Then came the words: ‘Welcome to Gloucester Cathedral…’ and we said together: ‘That’s Michael!’ In response to his friendly voice.
Michael was responsible for much of the worship during the week including all the hymns. The one selected for Choral Evensong was Charles Wesley’s Come, let us with our Lord arise, sung to GLOUCESTER by Herbert Brewer (1865-1928), a former organist of Gloucester Cathedral.
IAH Conference
Next year’s IAH (European Hymn Society’s) Conference is taking place in Prague from Monday, 29th July – Sunday, 4th August 2024 in Prague. More details later.
From our Executive President Martin Leckebusch:
Secretary – Vacancies!
Our previous Newsletter reported Robert Canham’s decision to stand down as Secretary. We are hugely grateful for all his and Jenny’s work over 20 years, and that Robert will remain as Interim Secretary, pending appointment of a successor.
Some aspects of the role could be tackled separately: Membership (supplying ‘Welcome Packs’, chasing subscriptions, preparing postal labels etc.) and Archivist (overseeing our historic documents, many of them still on paper). We also need a Web Coordinator to oversee our online presence and liaise with the website manager.
If you feel you might be able to help in any of these or the more general Secretarial role, please contact either Robert or me, Martin Leckebusch, Executive President: Email: martin.leck@zoho.eu
Thank you.
From across the Irish Sea
Shortly after our Lincoln Conference, our former Executive President (2008-2011), Rt Revd Edward Darling celebrated his 90th Birthday; a card of Greeting signed by members of Conference was sent to him.
Bishop Edward wrote from Belfast: ‘What a lovely thought from The Hymn Society to have a specially personalised card signed and sent to me for my 90th birthday! I very much appreciated this gesture and, recognising so many of the signatures on the card, my heart was filled with a nostalgic warmth of the friendship which I always valued whenever I was actively involved in the Society’s activities. Please assure the Society of my appreciation of their continued good wishes. As it remains difficult for us to attend annual Conference, it was lovely to receive the birthday greetings card from you all. Thank you so much.’
Also, Congratulations
to our member, formerly Revd Dr Peter Thompson, now the Venerable Dr Peter Thompson. In addition to his duties as Rector of Castlecaulfield, and continuing role as sub-organist of Armagh Cathedral, Peter was recently installed as Archdeacon of Armagh. We offer him our congratulations and very best wishes and hope these additional duties do not prove too arduous.
Revd Alan Gaunt, hymn writer, poet, pastor, friend
It is with profound regret that I have to report the death of our former Executive President (2002-2008) The Revd Alan Gaunt. In addition to being one of our Executive Presidents, Alan served on the Executive, made a substantial contribution selecting material for the Society’s publication: Rejoice O People: Hymns and Poems of Albert Bayly, as well as contributions to the Bulletin, and to Conference as Lecturer, Chaplain and Commentator at our Festival of Hymns.
The news arrived during our Lincoln Conference that Alan had died, peacefully and in good care, on Wednesday 19th July, following a short illness. Our thoughts and prayers must be with Alan’s wife, Winifred, their two children Paul and Miriam, and their families.
Until Easter, Alan remained active and leading Worship at Parkgate and Neston URC. Ordained into the Congregational Church in 1958, Alan had ministries entirely in the North of England in Lancashire, West Yorkshire, Tyne & Wear, Merseyside, Manchester and Cumbria. He and Winifred retired to The Wirral in 2000.
At Conference, announcing Alan’s death, I quoted the final verse of his hymn Eternal God, your love’s tremendous glory:
We ask you now, complete your image in us;
this love of yours, our source and guide and goal.
May love in us seek love and serve love’s purpose,
till we ascend with Christ and find love whole.
It was also the first hymn sung at the Celebration of Alan’s life, where a number of our members were present, including Revd John Marsh, a life-long friend of Alan’s, who gave one of the addresses, and Mandy Aknai from Stainer & Bell Ltd. Our Executive Presidency was represented by Dr Ian Sharp (Executive President 2011-2017).
In some ways my life has, over the last 20 years, felt loosely intertwined with Alan’s. He preached at my Induction Service at Lancaster in 2001, that same evening he rang to ask if I could look after a funeral for him at his former church, Windermere URC, as he wanted it in ‘safe hands’! In 2003 I answered the telephone to hear the word ‘Help!’; it was Alan urgently requesting me to become Secretary of the Society. Then in 2011, on my 65th Birthday, which was also the 75th Birthday of The Hymn Society, Alan was one of seven hymn writers present to introduce their own hymn.
It seems strange that news of Alan’s death should come through the same day as my role as Secretary began to diminish.
We also regret having to report the death of another member:
Mr Peter M. Haskins (Great Coxwell, Oxfordshire)
Peter was a member of the Society for over 30 years.
Forthcoming ‘London Day 2024’
Following the preliminary information circulated at the beginning of the year in Secretary’ Newsletter: No.95: Winter 2023, it can now be confirmed that the event will be held on Saturday, 20th April 2024 at the Union Chapel, 19b Compton Terrace, Islington, N1 2UN, probably from 10.30 am to 4.00 pm. The Chapel is very close to Highbury and Islington Underground Station, which is linked to many different routes: overground national connections and underground Victoria and Northern lines.
Subjects of the talks:
Free Church Hymnody over the last fifty years,
The attitude to hymnody of the reformers Luther, Calvin and Zwingli,
A study of Hymns Ancient & Modern and / or The English Hymnal,
An analysis of how Covid affected congregations.
There will also be an act of worship with several hymns. John Webber is hoping to get some of his Church Choir along; Terence Atkins will accompany the hymns on the piano as the organ will be undergoing work at the time.
Speakers are likely to include: Gemma Birt (Anglican priest in South London), Ken Walker (Baptist Minister, retired to Chester) and James Dickinson (HSGBI member from Chesterfield).
There will be an admission price; if he can facilitate it, John Webber hopes to provide a sandwich lunch.
Please contact John Webber if you would like to be kept informed of the arrangements as they develop:
Email: maggieandjohn1@gmail.com
And finally…
Having spent far too much time, albeit gratefully, with our excellent NHS dentist in Morecambe, I was reminded (reported in a previous Newsletter a while back), of what the dentist said to the hymnologist as she peered into the cavernous depths of what surely bore some similarity to Exekiel’s vision of the Valley of Dry Bones (Ezekiel 37):
‘Change and decay in all around I see.’