As I write, I’m on my way home from a meeting of the StF+ Hymn Submissions group – a wonderful team of volunteers who bring their enormous variety of gifts and understanding to reflecting on the texts and tunes submitted for our consideration. Remarkably, this was our very first in-person meeting in the eleven-year history of the website. There was a large number of hymns to consider, and a lot of follow-up to work through, but expect new material to begin appearing as we move into 2023.
This newsletter looks towards the new year in other ways too – preparing for the Methodist Covenant service, unpacking the concept of “compass hymns”… In this season that embraces incarnation and new beginnings, once again we have the opportunity to hold the fragile, necessary, resilient gift of Christ’s Hope in our hands, drawing on its strength while also looking for ways to share it with others.
As we enter Advent, is it too “out of the box” to recall the words of a fine Easter hymn which may, perhaps, encapsulate our new year hope also?
Now the green blade rises from the buried grain,
wheat that in the dark earth many days has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.
(StF 306)