A festival of hymn singing! This, surely, is something to be enjoyed, and, at the same time, something to make us think. After all, the hymns are often expressions of our faith in poetry put to music.
I often find myself listening to Songs of Praise on television, and very often I feel that something is missing. It may be I do not like the tempo, or the, to me, lack of enthusiasm or passion in the music. Do those hymns move you, or uplift you? I would like to think so. This evening, I hope that will be the case: move you, yes, uplift your spirits, yes, a source of prayer, yes, a source of pleasure, surely!
The hymns I have chosen for this evening, with some help from members of the congregation, will, I hope, take us on a journey, in four parts.
To start, we have hymns of contemplation, of meditation, prayers. To remind us that hymn singing is part of communication with God.
Then we have hymns of the modern era, some of them composed and/or written in our lifetimes.
We must have some Welsh tunes, so Welsh tunes to English words.
And finally, some of the great uplifting hymns in our hymn books, the tunes for two of which, are by the great composers, Beethoven and Handel.
But finally, finally, to take us back to the period when choral evensong was an integral part of our weekly worship: an evening prayer to finish.
The event will take place on Wed 15 OCT 2025 at 7pm in St Catwg’s Church, Pentyrch. Please do come along and join us for what will be a lovely night of singing.
I’m sure you will enjoy the evening: sing with feeling; sing with thoughtfulness; sing with passion; sing with prayerfulness.
The evening is really the start of our fundraising to Save Our Roof. I hope you will be generous with your donations at the end of the service.
John Gough (Choirmaster, St. Catwg’s Church Pentyrch)