Barking

Byartsyhonker March 31, 2016 0 Comments
A few months ago I was having one of those journeys home where I end up at Barking station for half an hour, having just missed the Overground train heading north west.  I asked Twitter for hymn texts, and David Barton suggested this one by Anna Laetitia Waring: In heavenly love abiding, no change my heart shall fear. And safe in such confiding, for nothing changes here. The storm may roar...

Sonnet 27

Byartsyhonker February 26, 2016 0 Comments
The Fourth Choir had a composing competition, which I entered. I didn't make their shortlist, so here is my setting of Shakespeare's Sonnet 27. The words, of course: Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed, The dear repose for limbs with travel tired; But then begins a journey in my head, To work my mind, when body's work's expired: For then my thoughts (from far where I abide) Intend a zealous...

“Moses saw a burning bush while he was out tending sheep and you won’t believe what happened next!”

Byartsyhonker February 7, 2016 0 Comments
Sermon at Evensong, St Paul's Woldingham, Sunday next before Lent Exodus 3:1-6 John 12:27-36 “Walk while you have the light.” What does it mean to walk in light? What does it mean to stand on holy ground? It was the light that Moses would have seen first, so bright, and unending as the burning bush didn't burn. In the Eastern Orthodox tradition it's called the “unburnt bush”: and the...

Sermon for Baptism of Christ, Year C

Byartsyhonker January 10, 2016 0 Comments
Sunday 10th January 2015 – St Andrew's Leytonstone Isaiah 43:1-7 Psalm 29 Acts 8:14-17 Luke 3:15-17,21-22 This morning we celebrate the Baptism of Christ. We heard the main details of the event in our Gospel reading. It's a good time to recall those details, but also to reflect on our own baptism and what it means to be a member of the Body of Christ. We talked about baptism at the Advent...

Bicycles Change Lives

Byartsyhonker January 6, 2016 0 Comments
I'm increasing my cycling to 80 miles per week to improve my fitness. As a way of staying motivated I have signed up for a charity sponsorship thing. Qhubeka is the African programme of World Bicycle Relief. They provide bicycles to children -- many of whom would otherwise walk more than an hour each way to and from school. The bicycles are assembled locally. They are robust and durable, with...

Sermon for St John the Evangelist, 2015

Byartsyhonker December 27, 2015 0 Comments
St Andrew's Leytonstone Exodus 33.7-11 Psalm 117 1 John 1 John 21.19b-end Christmas is finally here – after all the preparation and planning during Advent and, if you're a church musician, even beginning before then. For many, the biggest celebrations are all done and dusted now, whether that's singing your heart out in church, exchanging gifts with loved ones, having a big roast dinner or all...

Advent — Christina Rosetti

Byartsyhonker December 4, 2015 0 Comments
We're well into December and there is so much going on that is very focused on Christmas; yet this is still Advent, a season of preparation. Advent is my SATB setting of Christina Rosetti's poem by the same name: 'Come,' Thou dost say to Angels, To blessed Spirits, 'Come': 'Come,' to the lambs of Thine own flock, Thy little ones, 'Come home.' 'Come,' from the many-mansioned house The gracious...

Christmas Carols with the London Gallery Quire

Byartsyhonker November 27, 2015 0 Comments
Wednesday 2nd December 2015 7.00pm Christmas Carols with the London Gallery Quire Tickets £6 on the door St George's German Lutheran Church 55Alie Street London E1 8EB (Located at the junction of Alie St and Leman St – 2 mins walk from Aldgate East tube) If you come along to this concert you will not only get to hear me play the serpent, but you'll be at the premiere of my setting of "The...

Working for Exposure

Byartsyhonker November 26, 2015 0 Comments
I see a lot of whingeing about people expecting artists to work “for exposure”. No, you can’t buy a loaf of bread with exposure, and I’m not contesting that. Work is work, and if we’re going to live in a capitalist system where we’re compelled to exchange money for goods and services, we need to pay creative people money for the work that they do. (Hint: most of us don’t get much...

Broomside 11 11 11 11 11 11

Byartsyhonker October 30, 2015 0 Comments
St Paul's Cathedral in Melbourne recently ran a competition for a Pauline hymn. I asked Miranda Threlfall-Holmes if she wanted to write some words for it, and we submitted an entry. PDF: broomside mp3: Words: 1. We meet as God's people in this holy place And gather together across time and space With all of Christ's body, Christ's building and field, The church of all sinners Christ died for and...