From a life of weariness

The second of Emma Turl’s two hymns in Praise! (as distinct from Psalm versions) directs each of its stanzas to ‘Calvary’—the ‘place of the skull’ named only at Luke 23:33 and then only in the Lat for ‘Golgotha’ (see note to 441). Unlike writers of previous generations, this author does not have ‘thee’ to fall back upon as a too-predictable rhyme. Her text, she says ‘was initially more of a poem than a hymn, though I was conscious that it went to the tune of Hark my soul, it is the Lord’. In 1965 she heard Fred Barff (cf notes to 749) remark, during a deputation visit for what was then the Ruanda Mission, that if we were aware of our love for Jesus growing cold, we should look at his wounds. Later she was to spend two years in Uganda, ‘where there was evidence of great spiritual revival which centred on what Jesus had accomplished for sinners on the cross.’ She introduced her text in a booklet of 30, Treasures Old and New: a collection of verses, where it is the penultimate item followed by ‘Prayer for Revival’. The key on our side of the relationship is the repeated ‘Bring me back …’ in the first 4 stzs, reflecting both their origin and their place in this section of the book. Praise! is the first hymnal to include them, followed by CH2004.

Gill Berry composed her tune HARLESCOTT GRANGE at Shrewsbury in 1990. It was one of the first of Emma Turl’s hymns which she set to music after they had met at the FIEC Caister conference in the spring of that year. ‘I had been looking for words to set to music, and Emma was looking for someone to write music to her words.’ The combined work was soon much appreciated when it was sung by the Shrewsbury church. It is named from the area just to the N of the town where the composer lives; it is first published here, again followed by CH in 2004.

b Shrewsbury 1946. Stamford High Sch (Lincs) and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford (MA English and Cert Ed). Born into a literary household, she loved poetry from childhood, and was converted aged 13 at a Scripture Union camp. She worked as VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) for two years in Ugandan ‘revival country’. Following this she married John and spent the next ten years (1971-81) in Ghana, afterwards returning to live in Waltham Abbey, Essex, where she and her family joined Goldings Hill Evangelical Free Ch, Loughton (1982–2002). She now attends the Abbey Church. While enjoying chanted Psalms as a student she longed for more congregationally accessible ways of singing them, and attributes her first desire to write ‘Bible oriented verse’ to a literary household, and Anglican services (St Ebbe’s Oxford) with readings and canticles. Her first metrical versions were written between 1983 and 1985, during which time she had paraphrased the entire Psalter. A few of these Psalm texts were printed with other verses in Treasures Old and New, 1989, followed by Time to Celebrate 1999, with suggested tunes from her husband John and friend Gill Berry, qv. Some of these are specially needed to accompany a number of unusual metres. Subsequently she has revised many of her original texts in the light of further comments and computer assisted discoveries, and has also added some new versions.
The monthly Evangelicals Now (see under Benton J) published her work occasionally from 1993; Praise! is the first hymnal to include her texts and one of these features in the 2004 edn of CH. Her sight began to deteriorate early; by the age of 13 she could read only with a strong magnifying glass, reading became increasingly difficult and slow, and by her mid 20s she was completely blind. This made her unaware of ‘the oustanding new hymns and Psalm versions which others were already producing, which could have inspired me but could well have put me off’. See her comments on some ‘blindness/sight’ hymns, with practical pastoral considerations, in ‘Singing without seeing’ in HSB234 (Jan 2003). In an earlier Bulletin review (no.225, Oct 2000), Basil E Bridge calls her hymns ‘thoroughly biblical…well – sometimes ingeniously – crafted…I am sure we shall be hearing more of Emma Turl in the future’. Her own choice of 15 of them appears in the collection of contemporary hymns, Emma now attends the abbey church in Waltham Abbey. More of her hymns can be found on the website of The Jubilate Group: www.jubilate.org
Come Celebrate (2009). Nos.30C, 53, 84A, 106, 107, 110, 119G, 123, 130, 168, 825, 1011, 1014, 1034, 1038, 1041, 1045, 1053, 1054, 1058, 1059, 1062, 1063, 1069, 1087, 1088, 1089, 1091, 1092, 1096, 1101, 1103, 1107, 1108, 1110, 1134, 1137, 1195, 1213, 1216, 1239, 1246.