When you prayed beneath the trees

‘The opening lines grew from seeing our Lord’s prayers in the garden of Gethsemane, described in the first 3 (synoptic) Gospels, in the light of John 17:20. The text weaves around the “tree” theme found in many Scriptures about the cross, including the earliest Christian preaching and teaching’— Light upon the River (1998) p109. It was a request from Paul Wigmore which prompted the writing of this text, at Oakley, Suffolk, in July 1990, while Christopher Idle was ministering there. PW was looking for new hymns about the cross, and a new text to the tune KELVINGROVE; this was published in Worship Songs Ancient and Modern which he edited in 1992. Since then at least 4 other composers have offered tunes, one of which appears (3 stzs only) in Lloyd Larson’s The Shadow of the Cross, a Good Friday liturgy published in the USA in 2002. The author still prefers the traditional Scots tune for which his words were written, provided it is played and sung with due solemnity and emphasis; a pause, for example, after 4.5. It is often used with John Bell’s words Will you come and follow me, also written for this music, but where the rhyme patterns are different. It is named after the Glasgow neighbourhood beside the river Kelvin which the author often visited when his son Jeremy lives nearby; Golden Bells also features Lister Peace’s (unconnected) KELVINSIDE. Since these words were written, however, the claims of John Barnard’s WIDFORD, composed for this text, have increasingly been heard and appreciated.

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.