Monthly column on hymns and songs

What will your church be singing on Remembrance Sunday?

Remember, remember . . .

But not so much the 5th as the 11th of this month; or the day after, since this year Sunday is the 12th. If your church observes it at all, what will you be singing?

It is a big 'if'. Not long ago, Remembrance Sunday, let alone Armistice Day on the 11th itself, had all but faded out for many people. For a mixture of reasons, none particularly Christian, that trend has now been halted or reversed. It is in the villages of our countryside that it has been kept most fervently, not least because the names on the War Memorials are the same as those in the school.

For King and country

It is harder to commemorate those who died 'for king and country' if our church or community is held together by those who took no part in our wars, or were on the other side, or for whom one or both conflicts brought nothing but misery.

Unless we want to recreate in Britain the tribalism which plunges other countries into civil war, or to perpetuate the myth that belonging to our nation overrides membership in Christ, some hard thinking is needed. Blind loyalty is no part of patriotism; that way go fascists and communists.

All of which affects our choice of hymns. I assume no evangelical will spend long agonising over whether to include 'O valiant hearts', that singular example of poetry in the service of blasphemy. Fred Kaan, a non-evangelical who rejects the hymn but recognises its power, has produced 'God! as with silent hearts we bring to mind', as a practical, sensitive and reverent alternative to match the tune and the occasion.

Sacred solemnity

An earlier 'Hymns now' was somehow robbed of the point of mentioning Hiroshima Day in August, which was Carl Daw's daring hymn 'Bright the cloud and bright the glory'. Our Lord's Transfiguration also features dazzling brightness, obscuring cloud and enduring transformation. This would be an unlikely choice for November, but it illustrates the need to break away at some point from the rituals of 'Our God, our help in ages past', magnificent though that is on the right occasion.

We have become so used to its sacred solemnity that we cannot hear its radical challenge to all human, worldly values. If there was any week for a prophetic note from the hymnwriters, surely this is it. Sadly, the potentially useful One World Week is in the grip of a multi-faith liberal agenda.

But is that the function of hymns? Historically it has often been; today we might look to a solo or choir song to do such a job for us. Let me recommend the songs of war and peace by Sue Gilmurray, notably for this occasion her solos 'Peace of the world', 'Honour to the soldiers' and the title track 'Finest Hour'. You can obtain it on CD or tape from APF, 11 Weavers End, Hanslope, Milton Keynes MK19 7PA- but be prepared for some surprises.

I appreciate among other things not only a distinctive voice, but also a sign that 'songs' need not be of the Spring Harvest or 'Songs of Fellowship' brand. These latter have swept the board in some churches, but represent only a fraction of what is available, and of what we may need to sing to God, or about him, in times of crisis.

New ways to remember

Whatever shape Remembrance Days take in Britain for a new century, they can never be the same as they were in 1920 or 1950. We owe it to our grandparents to remember them, and to our grandchildren to hand on a truly international church with a globally relevant gospel.

Christopher Idle

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