Through the darkness of the ages

As the much-heralded ‘Millennium’ approached, supposedly as the years changed from AD1999 to 2000, St Paul’s Cathedral announced its Millennium Hymn Competition, conceived in 1997 by Canon Michael Saward (himself a hymnwriter and at that time on the cathedral staff) who organised it and chaired a distinguished 9-strong judging panel. In all such projects, entries are assessed anonymously; less commonly, texts and tunes were examined separately; uniquely, the metre was stipulated as 87 87 D— they wanted a ‘big’, spacious hymn of thanksgiving and expectation. After some initial doubts, some 750 entries were received from all over the world by the closing date in 1998. Many of the best-known living hymnwriters sent entries; one of them came 2nd! In the following year the unanimous decision was to choose the words of the relatively unknown Hilary Jolly (but see 685). Like her other hymns, this was drafted as she walked her dog on Coe Fen near her Cambridge home. If some of her own sadnesses are written into the text, it also has a firm biblical strength in employing the language of Genesis and Revelation, as well as that of the over-arching gospel of Jesus Christ whose Millennium it was, and is.

The hymn was sung by the cathedral choir at the special ceremony and press conference held in the cathedral crypt to announce the winners, duly broadcast that same day, and sung at major Millennium events in London and nationwide from 2 Jan onwards in the year 2000. It was published as a single item (with music) by ‘Animus’ of Dalton-in-Furness, Cumbria; then with the 5 other leading hymns in the Cathedral booklet Two Thousand Years. The first hymnals to include it have been Sing Glory (for which Michael Saward was hymn-texts editor, 1999) and Praise!

The winning music, accompanying it in the St Paul’s booklet and in SG, was by Paul Bryan, and renamed ST PAUL’S CATHEDRAL when its success was announced. For this book, however, the preferred tune is Linda Mawson’s PRAISE!, used also for 926. This was composed for David Preston’s 51, a version of the supreme penitential Psalm. The composer writes, ‘I found myself again stunned by the Lord’s grace in forgiveness. I felt that the tune needed to end in confidence that the Lord had heard my prayer. Similar confidence is seen in the Millennium hymn to which I am happy that it has been set in Praise! I am grateful to the Editorial Board who named it after the book.’ We need only to note that Anton Radiger (see 790 below, as it happens) and Geoffrey Shaw have also used this name for their tunes.

b Watford, Herts 1945. Watford Girls’ Grammar Sch and Ecole d’Etudes Bilingues du Lycée Français de Londres. Following a ‘Damascus Rd’ conversion to Christ, she became a member of St Andrew the Great Ch, Cambridge, worked for the church part-time 1994–2002, and also from 1999 as a charity shop manager for a Christian youth and community centre. She has also been involved in supporting sufferers from schizophrenia. Encouraged by Christopher Hayward (qv) she began writing hymns, often as she walked with her dog on Cambridge’s Coe Fen. Her first published work was the prizewinning text (1999) for the St Paul’s Cathedral Millennium Hymn Competition, Through the darkness of the ages, though other texts had already come 1st and 3rd in a smaller-scale competition run by the Association of Christian Writers. Her best-known hymn now features in Sing Glory (1999) and elsewhere; one not included here is the carol-like text, O Mary, rock your little boy. In 2005 she joined the Jubilate Hymns ‘Text Advisory Group’ (TAG) for the assessment of new hymns. See also the survey and appreciation by Brian West in HSB 19.10, April 2011. Nos.685, 789, 861, 1163.