Author: artsyhonker

WLP1: joined-up housing help

Byartsyhonker April 6, 2013 2 Comments
This is the first letter of the Weekly Letter Project. This week I am writing to Rev Canon Paul Hackwood, chair of the board of trustees of the Church Urban Fund, about an idea for helping churches provide social housing. I struggled to get this down to one page of A4: the font is smaller than I'd like and I had to mess with the page margins! Next week, I'll try to keep it shorter. Dear Canon...

Weekly Letter Project

Byartsyhonker April 1, 2013 1 Comment
I know, I know, no posts for weeks at a time and then they all come at once. It's amazing how much I can write when I don't want to tidy up. I have written before on the problems of the "you make your own life" narrative. Since I wrote that post, the situation in Britain has not improved. Things are, frankly, dire and getting even worse. @kaygeeuk, who has carried out more activist interventions...

Sing Alleluia, and keep on walking

Byartsyhonker April 1, 2013 0 Comments
Thanks to @DrBattyTowers for the title of this post. I know she's used it, too; I just couldn't think of a better one for what I'm going to say later. Image from Miss Music Nerd. Holy Week has been and gone; Christ is risen, and walking amongst us. Yesterday -- Easter Day -- was a varied one for me. I woke early, having been up late enough to notice that yes, my various devices moved over to...

Nard

Byartsyhonker March 29, 2013 0 Comments
Foot washing... I didn't volunteer to have my feet washed last night, but it is something that has been much on my mind. I remember 2009, when I was in Christchurch (near Bournemouth) for work on Maundy Thursday, and couldn't get to a service due to clashing rehearsals but felt drawn enough to the events of Holy Week to try to do something; I walked to the ocean and let the sea wash my feet. It...

A Psalm for a Fabric Day during Passiontide

Byartsyhonker March 19, 2013 0 Comments
Forgive us, Lord, for we have been hasty : yea, so hasty that we have knocked over Last Year's Paschal Candle. In all fairness, the stand was a bit wobbly : but the incense studs did verily fall out. We searched, and four pins were found : Yet one remains lost from our sight. High and low we searched for it : Even unto behind the shelf full of hymnals. We have kneeled and prostrated ourselves in...

Recession and Evangelism

Byartsyhonker February 1, 2013 1 Comment
This morning a Twitter friend linked to a Telegraph article about the incoming Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, on a visit to Trent Vineyard church. I haven't watched the video of the interview with Caroline and Justin Welby, as it's private at the moment. I'm aware that the Telegraph may have presented a certain viewpoint, which may lead readers to a slightly different impression of what...

Two tunes for “Christ, whose glory fills the skies”

Byartsyhonker January 11, 2013 0 Comments
Every time we sing "Christ, whose glory fills the skies" I despair a bit. The tune "Ratisbon" is... well, it's okay, but it's not anything to really write home about. The other tune suggested in New English Hymnal is just boring. So I thought I'd write a couple of my own tunes for the same text. It is really a wonderful text, after all! I think that on reflection my tunes aren't much to write...

Transfiguration: updated

Byartsyhonker January 11, 2013 0 Comments
I've corrected Transfiguration, which I wrote in 2012. The new edition corrects some slightly dodgy Italian and also one of those pesky errors where Sibelius thinks it's okay to put two quaver rests instead of one crotchet rest. I have also added the file to the Choral Public Domain Library. This will be one of around five pieces performed at the Small Choirs Festival on 2nd February. We also...

Evensong at St Paul’s — from the inside

Byartsyhonker January 1, 2013 1 Comment
This week I am singing with the Ontario Cathedral Singers as they are doing a "cathedral week", singing services in cathedrals while the regular choristers are away. I met their director, and had an organ lesson with him, this past summer while visiting my parents in Canada. We've sung two services in St Paul's so far. Tomorrow (Wednesday) we'll be at Southwark Cathedral for Evensong at 5.30pm,...