Judge of all peoples
In 2018 there was a search for a hymn to be sung at the national commemoration of the centenary of the end of the 1914-18 war. This was my submission. Judge of all peoples
Category: Repentance
O my people
To help in preparation for the Lambeth Conference of 2008, hymns were asked for. The context of the conference was extremely painful, and there were fears that the Anglican Communion might break apart. This hymn was my submission. To shape the text, Read More …
O my people, sisters, brothers
*** To help preparations for the Lambeth Conference of 2008, hymns were asked for. This was my offering. O my people, sisters, brothers.midi The context of the conference was extremely painful, and there were fears that the Anglican Communion might break apart. To shape Read More …
Although I do not doubt your grace
* This hymn is offered as a help to enable us to face up to our personal responsibility for the health of the body politic. . Although I do not doubt.midi COMMENTARY It is not always easy to distinguish between those Read More …
Alive to God in Jesus Christ
*** The background to this hymn is in the story of the rejection by Sarah and Abraham, after the birth of their son, Isaac, of both Hagar, Sarah’s slave and Abraham’s concubine, and Ishmael, Hagar’s son by Abraham. COMMENTARY In the same way as Read More …
O Blessed Fire within
*** An achingly beautiful melody, hauntingly harmonised, to express an attempted response to Jesus’ comment on the seventh Commandment. COMMENTARY This hymn responds to what may be presumed to be one of Christianity’s most deeply felt conversation-killers: You have heard Read More …
O Thou, the breath, the Light of all
*** Written for Passion Sunday, the music of this hymn – VEXILLA NOVA – intentionally echoes the start of the great hymn of this day ‘The royal banners forward go’ to the plainsong ‘Vexilla Regis’. COMMENTARY Passion Sunday: ‘The royal banners forward Read More …
There is a gift we cannot grasp
*** This meditative hymn recognizes God’s invitation freely to eat of every tree of the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, whose fruit is given by grace alone. There is a gift we cannot grasp.midi We are graciously Read More …
Shout aloud! Do not hold back!
*** This hymn echoes a Scriptural call for real, not token, fasting. COMMENTARY This hymn offers an unfolding of the prophetic call to repentance in Isaiah 58.1-12. The prophecy is concerned with social justice and with building communities of mutual Read More …
Dear Source of joy, whence love is spawned
* This was my submission to a search for a new hymn ‘about inclusion’.