Category: The Midweek Hymn

I WAS going to do a Midweek Hymn continuing the Resurrection theme, but the Easter Sunday bomb attacks in Sri Lanka have made me change my plans. I am shocked … Continue readingI Know That My Redeemer Liveth

THERE can be no greater example than the Easter narrative of bitter anguish turning into triumph and joy. On Friday Jesus was crucified, dying after six hours in agony. His … Continue readingThine Be the Glory

THE events of Good Friday are well known, but almost too terrible to relate. Faced with religious elders and a hostile crowd wanting Jesus executed on charges of subverting the … Continue readingO Sacred Head Sore Wounded

TODAY is Palm Sunday and our hymn is Ride on, Ride on in Majesty, which is about Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem to meet the barbaric fate he knew awaited him. The … Continue readingRide on, Ride on in Majesty

AS we are approaching Easter, and the serious and contemplative hymns of the centre of Christian faith, I thought I would treat myself (and you, I hope) to something a … Continue readingJust a Closer Walk with Thee

THIS week’s choice, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus, has involved me in a little detective work into a widely repeated legend. It’s been tricky as details are scarce and contradictory, … Continue readingTurn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

IF a vote were held on a national anthem for England, as opposed to God Save the Queen for the whole of Britain (not that I am wishing a vote … Continue readingJerusalem

SOME hymns have taken a circuitous route to their present destination. One such is the wedding favourite O Perfect Love. The words were written by Dorothy Blomfield in 1883. She … Continue readingO Perfect Love

A FEW weeks ago in this series I noted a sort of ‘hymn snobbery’, with cathedral and other leading choirs almost exclusively using the New English Hymnal, originally published as … Continue readingHow Great Thou Art

IN the autumn of 1955, five men working as Christian missionaries in South America decided they would try to spread the word to a hitherto uncontacted tribe in Ecuador. Known … Continue readingWe Rest on Thee