The Secretary’s Newsletter

No.98: Autumn 2023
From the Interim Secretary:
Revd Robert A. Canham
Windrush
Braithwaite
KESWICK
CA12 5SZ
Phone: 017687 78054

Email: Please see our Contact page

Enclosed with this mailing…
Along with Bulletin 317 (Autumn 2023) the Festival of Hymns booklet from our Lincoln Conference in July is enclosed. Within the Bulletin itself, you will find the Commentary on the hymns sung and a list of various hymnological anniversaries to be celebrated in 2024.

Conference 2024
A reminder that our 2024 Conference will be at High Leigh Christian Conference Centre from Tuesday, 23rd July – Friday, 26th July at £360.00. The Booking Forms will be included in the next mailing. It will be a largely residential conference though some Day Visitors may be possible. With places limited, early booking is advised.

Online Short Guides
There are now thirty Online Short Guides covering a variety of hymn-related themes, two new ones having recently been added. Why not print a few of those titles or themes which may be of interest to your church and stimulate awareness of The Hymn Society. See below:

Short Guide No.29: Finding Out About Hymns
A topic which can be approached from various angles and for different purposes: hymns in general, information about specific hymns, hymns for use in worship… Martin Leckebusch considers the various resources available in books and online, along with aids to assist in the preparation of worship.

Short Guide No.30: Presenting and Responding to Hymns
Hymns are a significant element in much of worship. Although spontaneous singing can occur, most hymn singing is planned in advance. We should not assume that everyone is familiar with the conventions
of communal singing… Ian Sharp offers a range of helpful suggestions to those entrusted with preparing and leading worship.

News, events, reviews, anecdotes…
Over the years the Newsletter has, from time to time, been amply supplied with information about forthcoming events, reviews of recent events, and various items of hymn-related interest or humour. These have diminished in recent times. I would be grateful to receive any such items for consideration and, possibly, inclusion!

Bookcases at Westminster College, Cambridge

Those attending our 2015 Cambridge International Hymn Societies’ Conference will recall the warm welcome extended to us by Westminster College, Cambridge in providing accommodation for some of
those attending. Also for the absorbing display of books and other hymn-related material which they staged on our behalf drawn from their significant Elias Library collection of hymn books. The library was,
latterly, contained within the Westminster College ‘tower’. However, an ingress of water necessitated its removal, followed by some considerable work on the tower. It was subsequently decided to relocate
the Elias collection within the main college Library making it more generally accessible. An appeal was launched to procure bookcases in keeping with the rest of the library and to which The Hymn Society made a small grant. On a recent visit to the College, Jenny and I were able to view the newly installed furniture, awaiting the arrival of its ‘Elias occupants’!

Charles Wood Summer School
As part of the Charles Wood Summer School in August, this year celebrating its Thirtieth Anniversary, The Hymn Society was, once again, invited to present a Festival of Hymns, on this occasion the inaugural event and held in St Patrick’s (Anglican) Cathedral in Armagh. The hymns were presented by our Executive Past President, Revd Dr Janet Wootton, the Venerable Dr Peter Thompson, organist, the singing, conducted by Elizabeth Seale, led by The Lowry Singers.

Our former Executive President, Bishop Edward Darling, who was able to be present, commented both on Janet’s ‘splendid contribution’ and on what has now become the traditional Festival of Hymns in Armagh.

Congratulations
to our member Revd Canon Peter Moger, formerly Precentor of York Minster, most recently serving as Episcopalian priest on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, who has been appointed Sub Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.

Winner of the Paris Hymn Text Search
Email information was circulated to members in March about the St George’s Paris Anglican Church Bicentenary Hymn/Tune Competition. The winner of the words competition, selected from an international field of quality entries, turned out to be none other than our member Revd Doug Constable from South Wales.

Doug’s hymn, following the theme of St George is prefaced:

ST GEORGE, MARTYR

Strong Sovereign at the heart of every soul,
whose will is that creation be made whole:
you call us each to guard with every breath
your saving truth, through life, and to the death.

Our Hon. Vice President, Professor J.R. (Dick) Watson, offered this congratulatory note to Doug: ‘My congratulations to you on winning the St George’s Paris prize. The award is richly deserved. Your hymn is superb, verse after verse fitting the character of the saint, and applying his life to the world as we know it. I hope it becomes widely known, and that someone writes a good tune for it. You must have had great pleasure in writing this. It comes through, beautifully. Well done, indeed!’

The full text of Doug’s hymn, together with details about the present search for an accompanying tune, can be found at:
www.stgeorgesparis.com

The second part of the Competition is now in process: to identify a winning tune to accompany Doug’s text, the words of which can be downloaded as a pdf (see preceding para.).

The deadline for submissions in the tune category is 30th November 2023 so there is still time to enter. Full details can be readily accessed via the Paris church’s web site as above. The conditions for entries found by clicking on the rouge-coloured box: ‘Click here for the Hymn Competition Rules 2024’.

The metre is 10.10.10.10.

And, finally… an ideal Christmas Gift?

For more than 20 years, Worship Live drew together the best of new writing for use in church environments. Many poets, musicians, hymnwriters and liturgists, whose work would become well known, were first published in its pages.

Worship Live grew out of an idea conceived by the amazing hymnological entrepreneur, Bernard Braley, of Stainer & Bell Ltd. He had been at the forefront of publishing new words and music for worship for a
generation and more. Stainer & Bell helped to develop and continued to publish Worship Live for 17 years, but with changes in the way in which worship resources were being presented, it became evident that a paper publication was no longer viable. With Gillian Warson as co-editor, a valiant attempt was made at keeping an on-line edition in circulation, but this too ceased in 2016.

With a strong feeling that the wonderful resources in Worship Live should be honoured and celebrated, the idea of a ‘Best Of’ collection emerged.

First Flight Feathers: The Best of Worship Live is the result of two years’ work by Gillian Warson and Janet Wootton as they trawled through every edition of Worship Live to bring to the fore the very best of this fine earlier publication.

The title of the collection, First Flight Feathers, is taken from one of the poems in the book, ‘Landfall with Columba’, by Maggie Norton, which celebrates the craft of beautiful writing.

The project has now come to fruition, arriving in this beautifully produced volume First Flight Feathers. Gillian and Janet are delighted with this opportunity to showcase a vibrant collection of items which clearly demonstrates that writers and musicians grow and can develop into a community.

First Flight Feathers ISBN: 978-1-78959-285-6 is available from Sacristy.co.uk, price £16.99 or, doubtless, via your local bookshop.