Ages pass by, earth's treasures all decay

This new year text written by Rhiannon Weber at Winchester in 1977–78 looks beyond the next 12 months, but also to the immediate future for all the redeemed people of God (stz 2) who sing it. The author had been writing and recording versified overviews of Bible history and Christian doctrine, as teaching aids for her own children and as songs with enjoyable repetition. She then began to move into more adult summaries of Bible studies (some now collected in booklet form), sometimes also drawing on favourite Welsh hymns or, as here, such classics as Abide with me (905). This was published in Grace magazine in Jan 1979, included in Praises for the King of Kings in 1994 (printed by her husband Keith; see 12, note), and appears here for the first time in a main hymnal. It was warmly commended in at least one review of Praise!

The tune MORECAMBE, however, is well established in Free Church books, though composed by an Anglican organist. Frederick Atkinson published his tune in 1870, in a leaflet for use at St Luke’s church at Manningham, Bradford, where he served. Originally named HELLESPONT, it received its present name when appearing in the 1887 Congregational Church Hymnal, set to Bonar’s Here, O my Lord, I see thee face to face. Both names remain unexplained.

b Cardiff 1949. As a child she enjoyed Ficer Pritchard’s books of rhymes about Christian faith and life, written for memorising during a time of limited literacy in Welsh. Graduated BSc; as well as being wife and mother, she has helped with the family typesetting and printing business. Her first published text was a children’s song in Fellowship magazine (FIEC), 1977–78; she has also written Signposts to Proverbs (Banner of Truth) as well as some home-produced booklets, and other songs appeared in the Haywards Heath collection Praises for the King of kings. Her booklets include Scripture and Verse on topics such as the character of God, the Holy Spirit and the Christian life, and Line-Sketches with poems based on Job, Isaiah and Ezekiel. She has moved from verses written originally for her children (including Bible history and Christian doctrine) into more ‘grown-up’ versions of such material, finding chapter-summaries of longer Bible books a helpful way of keeping the broader picture in mind. Her hymnwriting is often prompted by older Welsh-language hymns, some of which she has translated. While living in Haywards Heath, Sussex, she belonged to the nearby Cuckfield Baptist Church until moving to Leominster, Herefordshire, in 2005. No.235.