AS THE subtitle of The Hymns of Patrick Appleford (Kevin Mayhew, £6.99 (CT Bookshop £6.30); 978-1-84417-868-1) explains, Canon Patrick Appleford is celebrating 50 years of hymn-writing.
In this modest little book we have 17 of his hymns, and the first to be written was the now famous “Lord Jesus Christ”, for which Appleford provided words and music. It was originally published in a volume called Thirty 20th Century Hymn Tunes in 1960, and was written while Appleford was curate at All Saints’, Poplar. He wanted something for the youth club to engage with, and came up with the now well-established formula of contemporary language (the language of Eliot and Auden) and a musical idiom that is at once modern but traditional.
He explains in his foreword that the modern language “conveys the intimacy of being friends of God and doing things with him”. Certainly that sentiment and his most popular hymns have resonated with congregations of all ages.
The other hymns in this collection often relate to the various events and appointments of his life. “O Lord, all the world belongs to you” was written when he became Education Secretary of the USPG (in the early ’60s), “God you are great” when he was working for his PGCE in Hereford, and “Praise to God, Creator Spirit” when he was appointed Director of Education for the diocese of Chelmsford.
It is perhaps inevitable that he associates his various hymns with the changing phases of his career. Some were commissions: “Lord of life” for the 75th anniversary of the Scout Movement, and “Glory be to God our Father”, written for a festival at All Saints’, Maldon. This, the most recent hymn, brings us from the beginning to the end of 50 glorious years.
This volume is an apt celebration of his hymn-writing, and I hope there is more music to come from this most engaging of hymnodists.
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