June 2006
Edward Darling and Hymnody	Show Menu

Jacqui Wilkinson from Cork, the Editor of ‘Follow Me’, the Religious Education programme being produced for use in schools under the patronage of the Church of Ireland, Methodist and Presbyterian churches in the Republic, recently interviewed Bishop Edward Darling on his involvement in hymnody. We have pleasure in reproducing the contents of this interview.

When did you start writing hymns? Is there a story behind any of the hymns you wrote?

It was never really my intention to write hymns of any description. I don’t regard myself as being a contemporary hymnwriter like Timothy Dudley-Smith, Fred Kaan, Fred Pratt Green or Christopher Idle. The first hymn that I happened to write was when a request came to the committee that was set up to compile Irish Church Praise. At that time somebody wrote to the compilers asking if we could set a newly-written version of the canticle Laudate Dominum (Psalm 148) to the familiar tune Kum Ba Yah. Laudate Dominum is probably the least used of all the canticles and we already have a fine hymn based on its text in Henry Williams Baker’s ‘O praise ye the Lord! In response I offered the suggestion that it might be much more fruitful to write a new version of the Benedicite which could be set to Kum Ba Yah, to which the committee replied ‘Will you write it?!’
It was this challenge which led to the writing of ‘All created things, bless the Lord’. That would have been around the year 1988.

The other hymns that I have written were produced to fulfil a need in the revised 5th edition of the Church Hymnal (2000) and the stories that led to their being written are told in the Companion to Church Hymnal, which was published in 2000 (Columba Press) by Dr Donald Davison (the Music Editor of Church Hymnal) and myself. My most recent hymn was commissioned by Dr Harry Grindle, the Director of the Belfast choir, ‘The Priory Singers’. His choir was producing a compact disc for Christmas 2005 entitled ‘Let Christians all with joyful mirth’ – a selection of Christmas music from Northern Ireland and he was anxious to have a suitable Christmas text for the tune ‘Grianán’ by Alfred Burrowes. As Alfred had been my Organist at St Gall’s Parish Church, Carnalea for a number of years, I felt I would like to pay tribute to him by setting the words ‘Hear those glorious sounds symphonious’ to his fine tune.

Do you enjoy singing hymns in church? Why?

I have always loved singing hymns ever since I was a choirboy in St Nicholas’ Parish Church in Cork, where my father was the Rector. In those days the choir in St Nicholas’ had a strong musical tradition. It was there that I became familiar with a large repertoire of hymns and learnt to appreciate their value and meaning. Indeed, I am firmly convinced that, through church music and particularly through the hymns we sang during my childhood, I developed a love of the liturgy and gradually became conscious of my vocation to serve in the ordained ministry of the Church of Ireland.

You worked to produce the Church Hymnal. Was it hard to choose from all the Christian hymns and songs? How many hymns did you start with before you narrowed it down to 719?

The very first task that the Hymnal Revision Committee undertook was to ask all the parishes throughout the Church of Ireland to suggest which ‘new’ hymns should be included in the revised hymnal and which hymns from the existing hymnal should be deleted. 52% of the parishes responded to our survey with the result that we were then faced with the task of deciding how many of almost 1000 hymns (consisting of the newly suggested ones as well as those recommended for omission) should be included.

The committee members subsequently fed their findings into a computer database and from our analysis of the information shown, we began to get a fairly clear idea as to the percentage ratings of the new material suggested. It wasn’t an easy task, but it was a challenging and exciting one which enabled us to present our choice of contents for the new hymnal to the General Synod for approval. Having received some further recommendations and suggestions from members of the Synod, we eventually ended up with the 719 hymns that now appear in the revised Church Hymnal.

Did you have to read and listen to all the hymns before they went into the book?

We certainly read through all the hymns so that we could evaluate their worth. There is no other way of being able to decide just how effective and useful each individual hymn or song will be. This meant, of course, that some of the hymns in the 1960 hymnal would have to be revised or updated to make them suitable for congregations entering the 21st century.

There was not the same need to listen to all the hymns. The musicians on the committee had no difficulty in evaluating the tunes simply by looking at the music. If the text of a hymn is good but the music is of poor quality, it is not a difficult task to find another tune in the same metre or, failing that, to compose a new tune.

What is your favourite hymn? Why?

There are so many hymns which I dearly love that I have the utmost difficulty in picking out any one in particular that I could honestly claim as my favourite. Of the hymns that are dear to me, the following would probably be my top dozen choices: ‘All creatures of our God and king’ (an outstanding hymn of creation), ‘Praise to the Holiest in the height’, ‘Hail to the Lord’s anointed’, ‘O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness’, ‘My song is love unknown’, ‘When I survey the wondrous cross’, ‘Christ triumphant, ever reigning’, ‘Rejoice, the Lord is King!’, ‘King of glory, King of peace’, ‘How shall I sing that majesty’, ‘Forth, in thy name, O Lord, I go’ and ‘We have a gospel to proclaim’

Why do you think hymns are an important part of worship? Do you think that choosing the hymns for each service in an important job?

Hymns play an extremely useful part in capturing the mood of a particular act of worship. More importantly, they can serve to highlight the passages of scripture prescribed in our Lectionary. A glorious opportunity, therefore, presents itself to those responsible for planning the details of our weekly acts of worship – hopefully by clergy and organists working together as a team – to ensure that a very meaningful choice of hymns is made. (Sadly, there is always the danger that only well-known favourites are selected, leading all too often to a sense of stagnation within our worship). To this end I compiled a detailed list of suitable hymns based on the readings used Edward Darling and Hymnody Sunday by Sunday. This list was published by Oxford University Press in the book Sing to the Word (2000), which unfortunately went out of print sooner than expected.

A new revised, extended and colourcoded electronic version will, however, be available shortly on the Church of Ireland’s website. The revised contents of Sing to the Word will also be incorporated in the planned revision of Sing His Glory to be published in England by the Canterbury Press. This is a companion to the Revised Common Lectionary (as used by the Church of Ireland) which provides a wide selection of hymns from the standard hymn books of the main Christian denominations. The new edition will include selections of hymns from both The Church Hymnal and The Irish Presbyterian Hymnbook.

You mentioned that you and Dr Donald Davison have produced a Companion to Church Hymnal, giving the background and history of the hymns contained in our hymnal. Did you uncover any interesting stories behind the hymns?

We most certainly did. Perhaps I could pick out just four. First, the circumstances that led to the writing of the tune ‘Magda’ (hymn 455), by Ralph Vaughan Williams, is of local interest in the Church of Ireland because it was written for the marriage of a couple who came from London to live in Bushmills, Co. Antrim.

Secondly, the fact that the ‘Veni Creator’ (hymn 296) was used at ordinations as early as the 11th century, coronations of English monarchs since 1307, and how Bishop John Cosin’s English translation from the original Latin was incorporated into the Ordinal (included with the 1662 Book of Common Prayer) creates a fascinating history.

Thirdly, when Keith Green added a third stanza to his wife Melanie’s original two verses of ‘There is a Redeemer’ (hymn 112) – ‘When I stand in glory’ – such an action could almost be interpreted as prophetic, for it was only about five years later that he and two of their children were killed in a tragic and disastrous plane crash.

Fourthly, Fred Kaan’s moving hymn, ‘Put peace into each other’s hands’ (hymn 507), was regularly used at the annual anniversary service at Bolton Hospice, but with an increasing number of Muslim and Hindu relatives (of those who had died) attending the service, the author was asked if he could substitute the two final stanzas to make it more suitable for interfaith worship. These two new stanzas are printed in the Companion for the benefit of those who should ever be planning an interfaith act of worship.

These are just four examples chosen at random. There are many hymns in the Church Hymnal which have been written as a result of different interesting, but similar moving, circumstances. Did you know, for instance, that the first two stanzas of ‘Now thank we all our God’ (hymn 361) were probably originally written as a grace said before meals at the dinner table and that it was later that the final stanza was added as a doxology? One of the original purposes of writing the Companion to Church Hymnal was to provide users of the hymnal with as much concise background material as possible so that their understanding and appreciation of the hymns they sing in church might be greatly enriched.

What advice would you give to someone who is thinking about writing a worship-song or hymn?

I would say that unless one is particularly inspired by a theme or a special occasion, don’t attempt to write one. It is true that naturally gifted hymn-writers or poets can churn out meaningful texts which are of a consistently high quality; but most of us do not possess that latent talent. In other words, don’t write a hymn or worship-song simply for the sake of writing one. One must always have a purpose for writing a hymn. Speaking personally, I would probably find it more natural to compose a tune for a hymn rather than write the text itself, because the words often dictate what should be the mood of the tune. But here again, there really must be a real purpose in writing a hymn tune.

Edward Darling served much of his parish ministry in the Belfast area and was Bishop of Limerick & Killaloe from 1985 to 2000.

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