Singing The Faith Plus
This year’s Creation Time may have come to a formal close on 4 October (the feast of St Francis), but I realise autumn is the season of the year when I’m most aware of nature’s rhythms. The colours of the beech leaves and rose hips in the lanes around our house have never been more vivid, and the cries of the migrating geese never more captivating. This is also the time of year when I can roam across the fields of stubble and watch the hares outwit our very excited dog.
The Pratt Green Trust hymn competition this year explored the theme ‘Celebrating creation in all its diversity’ and Sue Gosforth’s words mirror my experience rather well:
Blazing red and golden hues
Drifting gently to the ground
Sunset fades to harvest moon
See the birds southward bound…
Sue’s winning text, ‘Maker, we praise you’, is set to an original tune by David Hill. In the category of new words set to familiar tunes, ‘Creation’s Glory Shines’ by the URC minister Colin Thompson is more adventurous in its use of language:
Creation’s glory…
… runs through all the earth
in atom, cell and gene,
worlds no less wondrous in their power
because they are unseen.
It was written with Bach’s tune ‘Ich Halte Treulich Still’ in mind (Hymns & Psalms 325) but can be sung to other DSM tunes (Simple Metre Double), including Paul Leddington Wright’s ‘St Mary’ (StF 5).
The winning hymns can be found at prattgreentrust.org.uk, together with complete recordings.