Hymnathon raises more than £24,000 for St Michael & All Angels Church

Image: Singers from West London Chorus in the foreground and St Michael & All Angels Choir in the choir stalls behind; Photograph by Jim Cox

Choirs, regular church goers and ‘cultural Christians’ sang their way through 150 hymns for 150 years of Bedford Park

Conservative Party Leader Kemi Badenoch has come in for some stick this past few weeks for describing herself as “culturally Christian.”

I know exactly what she means by that though, at least my own version of it – I never set foot inside a church except for weddings, funerals and book festivals, and yet still know all the words to The Lord’s My Shepherd.

People of my generation (baby boomer) can all name their favourite hymn. We sang hymns daily at school assembly and a fair proportion of us also went to church on Sunday.

That proportion has dropped considerably. Although the past few years have seen a slight uptick, the number of new members of the Church of England, as measured by Confirmations, is about a quarter of what it was in the mid-nineties (10,860 in 2022 compared with 48,020 in 1994). The numbers of those attending Catholic mass have followed a similar trajectory.

Image: Singers from Our Lady of Grace & St Edward, Chiswick – on the platform at the front – and Hounslow Community Choir in the choir stalls; Photograph by Jim Cox

Schools don’t sing hymns the way they used to, and even when they still did, a quick straw poll amongst the 20 and 30-somethings of my acquaintance tells me their experience was of the more ‘child-friendly’, happy-clappy songs such as Give Me Oil in My Lamp (Sing Hosanna) or If I Had a Hammer, which owe  more to the traditions of folk songs than hymns.

Give Me Oil in My Lamp was a hit for Jamaican Ska singer Eric “Monty” Morris in 1964, while If I Had a Hammer was a protest song written in 1949 by Pete Seeger, who also popularised another of the Millennial generation’s childhood cultural references, We Shall Overcome, the anthem of the Civil Rights movement, which along with other popular songs such as He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands have passed into the lexicon of quasi-religious songs in mainstream culture.

Image: Morning sun streaming in through the south windows, dazzling the bar team; Photograph by Jim Cox

They are not, however ‘proper’ hymns. Most millennials would have recognised very few of the 150 hymns which competed for the top slot in the St Michael & All Angels Hymnathon on Saturday.

These were largely what I would call ‘proper’ hymns, with beautiful, moving music that tugs at the emotions and poetic words, mostly written by Victorians. Hymns like Dear Lord and Father of Mankind, adapted from a poem by an American Quaker John Greenleaf Whittier in 1884.

The tune, ‘Repton’ was written by Hubert Parry, the Victorian composer best known for Jerusalem, who was professor of composition and musical history at the Royal College of Music and a professor of music at Oxford University, considered to be up there with Henry Purcell as a composer.

And did those feet in ancient time (Jerusalem) was based on a poem by William Blake, inspired by an apocryphal story that a young Jesus, accompanied by Joseph of Arimethea, travelled to England and visited Glastonbury, during his unknown years.

Though the music written by Sir Hubert Parry in 1916, the famous orchestration was written by Sir Edward Elgar. These are important figures in our cultural history.

Image: Singers from St Paul’s Grove Park on platform (+ young follower) and St Michael & All Angels garden and flowers team in choir stalls

Some may call it hypocritical, pitching up to sing hymns when you never set foot in a church normally. I call it ‘embracing my cultural Christianity.’ (Thank you Kemi Badenoch).

It was lovely to go on Saturday to remember these great anthems from my childhood. The words came easily and singing as part of a congregation is hugely cathartic. It’s the only time you can sing at the top of your voice without worrying.

There are so many people, your individual voice cannot be identified. It’s not like being in a choir, where you let the side down if you hit a bum note, and you know you are not alone as you wrestle with the words, trying to fit them to the tune and producing a different result from the choir.

We worked our way through the Christmas and Easter hymns in the first hour. My favourite is In the Bleak Midwinter, for the pictures created by Christina Rosetti – ‘Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone.’

Image: The early shift, covering Christmas and Easter; Photograph by Jim Cox

It’s true that half the time I don’t know what I’m singing about. I’ve sung O Come, all ye Faithful every year for 60-odd years, yet still had to look up what ‘We to the Christ Child bring our heart’s oblations’ meant. (Oxford English dictionary, ‘oblation’: a thing presented or offered to God or a god).

Yet Christina Rosetti makes it simple, adding the feminine touch: ‘Only his mother, in her maiden bliss, worshipped the beloved with a kiss’.

Image: Betjeman Society members with Hymnathon organiser Torin Douglas (second from right) and St Michael & All Angels director of music Jonathan Dods (right)

Many of the most memorable hymns for Christian festivals were written by women – The Easter hymn, There is a green hill far away and the Christmas carol Once in Royal David’s City, by Cecil Frances Alexander for example. The harvest hymn, We Plough the Fields and Scatter was translated from its original German by Jane Montgomery Campbell.

I’ve been concentrating on Christmas and Easter because, I confess, I didn’t stay longer than the first hour, though I like to think if I hadn’t spent the last six weeks coughing, I might have made a better job of it.

Video: ‘Guide me, O thou great Redeemer’, voted the most popular hymn in St Michael & All Angels’ Hymnathon

‘Guide me O thou great Redeemer’ voted the most popular hymn

At the end of of nearly nine hours of hymn singing, the final song was sung. The most popular hymn, which raised the most money, was Guide me o thou great Redeemer, beloved by Welsh rugby fans and church congregations alike.

Why? I’m sure it has as much to do with rugby as it does with Christianity, though the two are inseparable in Wales, where both the tune Cwm Rhondda, and the vicar of St Michael & All Angels Church, Fr Kevin Morris, are from, so maybe that had something to do with it.

St Michael & All Angels Hymnathon has raised about £24,000 and counting for St Michael & All Angels’ Heritage Conservation Fund. Thine be the glory came a close second, with  Dear Lord and Father of mankind trailing in third place.

Image: Chris and Amanda Bradley checking the Top 20 placings on the screen; Photograph by Torin Douglas

At least 212 singers took part, including three who were at the church’s first Hymnathon in 1987: Oliver West, church organist back then, Anne Mower and Brian Barker.

There were six organists across the day: Jonathan Dods, Oliver West, William Brooke, Vicki Tibbitts, Simon Lewis and Jack Redman.

Choirs who took part were: St Michael & All Angels, West London Chorus, Hogarth Singers, Our Lady of Grace & St Edward, St Paul’s Grove Park and Hounslow Community Choir.

The St Michael’s altar servers, gardeners and flowers team also played a leading role. Virtuoso violinist David Juritz played the violin for the final Top 10.

Image: Into the Top 20 at 7pm; Photograph by Torin Douglas

Torin Douglas, one of the organisers, said:

“This was our sixth Hymnathon, and it went even better than we’d hoped, in fundraising as well as singing. Lots of people were competing to push their favourite hymn up the chart and the lead changed hands several times in the last hour. We hope there may still be a few more donations, as in previous years, from people who couldn’t be there on the day or who want to remember loved ones and help preserve the church for the community.”

Fr Kevin Morris, vicar of St Michael & All Angels said:

“It was a most joyful, life-affirming day, singing hymns, and it was wonderful to see so many of the local community coming along, including many from other churches and choirs.

“I had several conversations with people who were despairing after the Trump-Zelensky press conference the day before. They didn’t know what to do with the very strong feelings that it evoked. So they came along to the Hymnathon to be with people, to do some singing and try and think about other things.

“In doing so, they began to feel better about life, renewed their faith in the goodness of people and went home again hopeful that we can make the world a better place. The Hymnathon worked on so many levels and for this I thank God.”

I hope it becomes an annual fixture.

The Justgiving page is still available for donations here: St Michael & All Angels Hymnathon Just Giving

Image: Singers from the Hogarth Singers (with Oliver West at the organ, who organised the first St Michael’s Hymnathon in 1987); Photograph by Jim Cox

Image: David Juritz accompanying the Top Ten hymns

Image: Jim Cox taking a photograph, with St Michael’s garden and flowers teams behind him; Photograph by Marjolein van Kampen 

Read more stories on The Chiswick Calendar