Eternal Light, shine in my heart

The 8th-c prayer of Alcuin (or Ealhwine, of York and Tours) has appeared in anthologies of prayers. At Limehouse, E London, in 1977, Christopher Idle based one of his shortest hymns on those words, with additional touches in stz 3; after appearing in HTC it became his best-known text in the USA, where it is included in several hymnals and has many new tunes composed for it. It is also found in standard hymn-books in Canada, Australia and Japan. Some of these prefer ‘help me see’ in 2.2, but the author believes that the authentic text printed here makes more sense. It has been assigned to various places in the arrangements of contents; its position in HTC was the result of error, but in the present book it seems well placed.

Of the new tunes, David Peacock’s SEVEN SEAS was one of the first, featuring in HTC together with Norman Warren’s SARAH RACHEL. He composed it while Music Director at Clarendon School, but its name was provided by HTC’s music committee. They detected ’7 C’s’ in the melody; close inspection suggests there are 8. Of older tunes, HERONGATE (934) is one possibility.

b York, c735, d ?Tours, France, c804. He was educated in the cathedral school in his native York under Archbp Egbert, becoming its master in 766 and gaining a scholarly reputation as librarian. In 782 the emperor Charlemagne invited him to court at Parma as an educational and religious adviser, where he rapidly emerged as a leader in the intellectual and cultural renaissance in Europe. After a period of teaching at Aachen, he was made Abbot of Tours in 796, set up a further school and library, and remained there until his death 8 years later. He drew on Augustine and Boethius, teaching by the dialogue method and consolidating the use of Latin; some 300 of his letters survive. Other writings included doctrinal works, educational manuals on maths, grammar and history, and a revised lectionary (a list with a modern ring), but although he also wrote verse such as his metrical history of the church in York ‘in the style of Fortunatus’ (qv), he was not a hymnwriter as such. He is briefly mentioned in the 1907 ‘New Supplement’ to Julian because of one 1901 translation (‘His connection with hymnology is slight’—J Julian), and his name appears in current hymn-books only in relation to the version included here: see notes. References to his hymns being ‘sung in Charlemagne’s court’ are therefore without foundation; though born some 60 years after the death of Caedmon, the first known poet in English, he did nothing to build on Caedmon’s achievement. His Latin works (Opera) were published in Paris in 1617; he was not ambitious, nor ordained beyond the order of deacon, and is described as ‘efficient rather than original’. (The ‘Alcuin Club’ was founded in 1897 to promote certain styles of Anglican liturgy and has no connection with the scholar whose name it adopted.) No.693.

b Bromley, Kent 1938. Eltham Coll, St Peter’s Coll Oxford (BA, English), Clifton Theol Coll Bristol; ordained in 1965 to a Barrow-in-Furness curacy. He spent 30 years in CofE parish ministry, some in rural Suffolk, mainly in inner London (Peckham, Poplar and Limehouse). Author of over 300 hymn texts, mainly Scripture based, collected in Light upon the River (1998) and Walking by the River (2008), Trees along the River (2018), and now appearing in some 300 books and other publications; see also the dedication of EP1 (p3) to his late wife Marjorie. He served on 5 editorial groups from Psalm Praise (1973) to Praise!; his writing includes ‘Grove’ booklets Hymns in Today’s Language (1982) and Real Hymns, Real Hymn Books (2000), and The Word we preach, the words we sing (Reform, 1998). He edited the quarterly News of Hymnody for 10 years, and briefly the Bulletin of the Hymn Society, on whose committee he served at various times between 1984 and 2006; and addressed British and American Hymn Socs. Until 1996 he often exchanged draft texts with Michael Perry (qv) for mutual criticism and encouragement. From 1995 he was engaged in educational work and writing from home in Peckham, SE London, until retirement in 2003; following his return to Bromley after a gap of 40 years, he has attended Holy Trinity Ch Bromley Common and Hayes Lane Baptist Ch. Owing much to the Proclamation Trust, he also belongs to the Anglican societies Crosslinks and Reform, together with CND and the Christian pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation. A former governor of 4 primary schools, he has also written songs for school assemblies set to familiar tunes, and (in 2004) Grandpa’s Amazing Poems and Awful Pictures. His bungalow is smoke-free, alcohol-free, car-free, gun-free and TV-free. Nos.13, 18, 21, 23A, 24B, 27B, 28, 31, 35, 36, 37, 48, 50, 68, 78, 79, 80, 81, 83, 85, 89, 92, 95, 102, 108, 109, 114, 118, 119A, 121A, 125, 128, 131, 145B, 157, 176, 177, 193*, 313*, 333, 339, 388, 392, 420, 428, 450, 451, 463, 478, 506, 514, 537, 548, 551, 572, 594, 597, 620, 621, 622, 636, 668, 669, 693, 747, 763, 819, 914, 917, 920, 945, 954, 956, 968, 976, 1003, 1012, 1084, 1098, 1138, 1151, 1158, 1159, 1178, 1179, 1181, 1201, 1203, 1204, 1205, 1209, 1210, 1211, 1212, 1221, 1227, 1236, 1237, 1244, 1247, 5017, 5018, 5019, 5020.