Silently we watch as our God

By way of immediate contrast with 377 (though beginning again with silence) come Linda Mawson’s contemporary words and music, written together for a Carol Service at her home church in Plumstead (see 166, note) and first published here. The words are structured as a trio: ‘Silently we watch … Thankfully we take … Joyfully we wait …’, encompassing Christ’s incarnation, redemption and second coming; but the refrain centres our thought on his nativity. The full text conveys the writer’s wonder at the truth of ‘Our God contracted to a span,/ incomprehensibly made man’ (364). The music was originally composed for female voices ‘since there were few willing male volunteers’. Later at Crofton Baptist Church, Orpington, Anne Shore and the Crofton Singers used this piece widely, entering it as one of their contributions to BBC Radio 2’s 1998 Choral Competition; it was subsequently sung at the London Emmanuel Choir’s Royal Albert Hall Festival. The tune HAZELMERE (note the spelling) takes its name from Anne’s home, ‘to acknowledge the connection with Anne and the children’. This is in turn named from the Chiltern village near High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The suggested speed, ‘Fairly fast and flowing’, is a further contrast with the preceding carol.

Linda was born in Woking, Surrey 1947. She studied at the Royal College of Music and gained a  BMus, GRSM, ARCM (Piano)  Having worked in Music Education as both Piano Teacher and Secondary Music Teacher, Linda retired from teaching in July 2006. Her husband Peter also retired from Music education and early in 2007, they moved to Bristol where Peter served as co-Pastor in an Evangelical church in Headley Park. In May 2012 they moved again to Tenterden , Kent, where Peter is currently the Pastor of Trinity Baptist Church. Linda has served as music coordinator in each of the local churches she has belonged to and has also served within the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches in preparing music and as organist and pianist for Conferences.

Linda was invited to be music adviser and member of the Modern Songs team for Praise!, where her work is first published; subsequently she joined its Editorial Board as Member and Trustee. As such Linda has been involved in reviewing and selecting words and reviewing, composing and arranging music for both the book and online versions of the collection.

For many years she prepared a children’s chorus for a summer Bible Club; she had 23 compositions and 41 arrangements (many for instrumental groups and choirs) to her credit by the time of the publication of the hymn-book in 2000.  Text nos.378, 796. Tune nos.2A, 100=440, 119A*, 119E*, 133B, 166, 190*, 195*, 202*=548*, 245, 248*=815*, 270, 275*, 295*, 324*, 328*, 350*, 361*, 363*, 367*, 371*, 378, 404, 408*, 432*, 453*=910*, 462*, 474*, 480*, 510*, 512, 516*, 519, 531=784, 534=623, 579*, 598, 614*, 636*, 655, 667*, 675*, 676*, 683*, 684*, 710*, 715*, 729*, 733*, 779, 784, 789=926, 795=887, 796, 804*, 869*, 882, 885*, 895*, 914, 920*, 922*, 937*, 946*, 948*, 973*, 1205*, 1217*, 1252*.