The 2015 Flower Festival
The Festival - held in June - used the theme for each display
to represent a well-known hymn.
Ten displays filled the Church with a beautiful fragrance and vivid colour.
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As the Deer Pants for the Water Martin J. Nystrom A well-known praise and worship song by Martin J. Nystrom, |
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As the deer pants for the water You alone are my strength, my shield I want You more than gold or silver You're my friend and You are my brother |
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All Heaven Declares Noel Richards |
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All heaven declares the glory of the risen Lord |
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All Things Bright and Beautiful Cecil Frances Alexander |
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This very popular hymn was written in1848 and included in Mrs. Cecil Alexander's Hymns for Little Children,. It consists of a series of stanzas that elaborate upon verses of the Apostles' Creed. The hymn may have been inspired by a verse from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner: "He prayeth best, who loveth best; All things great and small; For the dear God who loveth us; He made and loveth all." Mrs Alexander was the wife of the Archbishop and Protestant Primate to Ireland and so was a staunch member of the anglican community. Whatever her connections she seems to have no worries about people being in their rightful place. The third verse (which we don’t sing) talks about the rich man in his castle and the poor man at his gate. Defenders of Mrs Alexander say she was explaining the inclusiveness of God’s kingdom rather than approving a money centred hierarchy. The Inner London Education Authority banned the singing of the verse in 1982! James Herriot, the well known Yorkshire vet, whose adventures were made famous in the BBC series All Creatures Great and Small used the title of the hymn as a title for one of his books underlining its well-known reputation. The tune was written in 1915 by Martin Shaw. It is called Royal Oak and is a jolly, rhythmic tune which celebrated the restoration of Charles II in 1660 |
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All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful, |
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There is a Green Hill Far Away Cecil Frances Alexander |
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There is a green hill far away, We may not know, we cannot tell, |
He died that we might be forgiven, There was no other good enough |
| O dearly, dearly has He loved, And we must love Him, too, And trust in His redeeming blood, And try His works to do. |
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It’s said that Mrs. Alexander wrote this hymn while sitting at the bedside of her sick child. At the time she lived not far from the old walled city of Londonderry, where her husband was the Bishop. The sight of the massive town walls and the green hills beyond might well have inspired her to begin writing her well known passiontide hymn for children. Cecil Frances Alexander was born at Redcross, County Wicklow, the second daughter of a British Army Major. She was a devout Christian who came under the influence of the Oxford [high Church] Movement. From an early age she showed a great aptitude for writing. When she was just twenty five she published her Hymns for Little Children [1848] with an introductory note by the celebrated Revd. John Keble. Dedicated to her ‘little godsons’ the book was written to illustrate and explain the Church Catechism. The hymnal also contained other well known hymns, among them, All things bright and beautiful and Once in Royal David’s City, written to celebrate the credal statements, Creator of Heaven and earth and Born of the Virgin Mary. Two years after the publication she married the Revd. William Alexander. He was six years her junior and the marriage caused quite a stir within her own family. It is said that her father arranged, for the sake of propriety, for her birth date to be altered in the registers. [In some old hymn books her year of birth is given as 1823]. The two enjoyed a blissfully happy marriage and her husband later became Bishop of Derry and Archbishop of Armagh. Though written for children this is a classic hymn for young and old. It sets the scene of our Lord’s passion and celebrates the mystery, the purpose, the necessity and the challenge of the cross. It is usually sung to the tune Horsley, written by Willam Horsley [1774-1858]. Mrs. Alexander devoted her life to Christian education, to the care of the young and the poor. All the profits from the sale of her writings were donated to a home for deaf children. |
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Eternal Father Strong to Save William Whiting The words were written by William Whiting, 1860 wrote the lyrics as a poem for a student about to sail for America. It was put to music was by |
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He's Got the Whole World Obie Philpot This traditional American spiritual was written in World War II by Obie Philpot, a Cherokee Indian. The song is a simple but powerful truth. It celebrates that Almighty God created and sustains the universe and everything in it. The writer of Psalm 95 captured the same truth years earlier. He invited everyone to |
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He's got the whole world in his hand. He's got you and me, brother, in his hand. He's got you and me, sister, in his hand. He's got the little tiny baby in his hand. |
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Arky Arky a modern song for children |
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The Bible records a devastating worldwide Flood, many centuries after Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden. Sedimentary layers sometimes miles thick, bear mute testimony to this massive watery upheaval which tore apart and buried forever the pre-Flood world. After the Flood, the survivors (Noah's family) moved to the plain of Shinar (Sumeria/Babylonia) which is where we find rivers today called Tigris and Euphrates. These are therefore clearly not the same rivers. They run on top of Flood-deposited layers of rock containing billions of dead things (killed by the Flood). These rivers were probably named after the original pre-Flood rivers, just as settlers from the British Isles to America and Australasia applied familiar names to many places in their “new world.” Note also, that the Bible speaks of one river breaking into four. This is not what is found in the Middle East today. The Garden was destroyed by the Flood. Its actual location on the globe can never be reliably established. |
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The Lord told Noah:There's gonna be a floody, floody (x2) |
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King of Kings Jarrod Cooper |
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King of Kings, Majesty, |
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Jarrod Cooper is a 33 year old singer/songwriter and worship leader with songs of breathtaking quality (1993's "To Rule By His Mighty Hand" and 1997's "Days Of Wonder" are both gems). He has produced an amazing 21 independent albums since 1990! This quiet, unassuming Welshman is an internationally recognized Bible teacher . Brought up in the Church, Jarrod's father was a leader in a large Pentecostal fellowship. It was a visit to his church by a groundbreaking band called ‘Living Sounds’, that hugely affected the six year old Jarrod. He remembers, "All these Americans piled off the bus, came into his church and did this concert. He can vividly remember sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of the platform looking at them and saying to myself, 'I'm gonna do that. ' While still aged six Jarrod's parents felt called to be missionaries in Gibraltar. By the age of nine Jarrod was playing guitar and showing a real aptitude for music. Then in his teens he unexpectedly extended his musical skills. "We were over visiting friends in England," remembers Jarrod. "I just sat down at a piano and found I could play. It was really, really strange. I just started to play. My parents and all their friends were in one room, in this house. They were sitting there and suddenly they heard this piano start to play. They looked round the room and realised all the piano players were in the room. They all came through and it was me sat there playing the piano. It just made sense to me." Returning permanently to England in 1988 with his parents, Jarrod enrolled in some worship courses. Jarrod became a prolific songwriter. He comments, "When I had a lot more time than I have now, I used to write a lot. I've written literally hundreds of songs. I write for God and out of every hundred songs there are maybe 10 that are performable and for an album." |
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Jesus Christ is Risen Today Charles Wesley |
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Jesus Christ is risen today, Alleluia! Hymns of praise then let us sing, Alleluia! But the pain which He endured, Alleluia! Sing we to our God above, Alleluia! |
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The whole system of Christianity rests upon the truth that Jesus Christ did actually rise from the grave. This resurrection hymn “Jesus Christ is Risen Today” is one of the church's most popular Easter hymns. It was first written by Charles Wesley one year after a heart-warming experience at the Aldersgate Hall in London, England, in 1738. This hymn was written by Charles for the first service in the Wesleyan Chapel in London. That chapel was first a deserted iron foundry. It became known as the Foundry Meeting House. |
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Morning Has Broken Eleanor Farjeon "Morning Has Broken" is a popular and well-known Christian hymn first published in 1931. It has words by English author Eleanor Farjeon and is set to a traditional Scottish Gaelic tune known as "Bunessan" (it shares this tune with the 19th century Christmas Carol "Child in the Manger”). It is often sung in children's services. |
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Morning has broken, Sweet the rain's new fall, Mine is the sunlight, |
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The hymn originally appeared in the second edition of Songs of Praise (published in 1931), to the tune "Bunessan", composed in the Scottish Highlands. In Songs of Praise Discussed, the editor, Percy Dearmer, explains that as there was need for a hymn to give thanks for each day, English poet and children's author Eleanor Farjeon was "asked to make a poem to fit the lovely Scottish tune". A slight variation on the original hymn, also written by Eleanor Farjeon, can be found in the form of a poem contributed to the anthology Children's Bells, under Farjeon's new title, "A Morning Song (For the First Day of Spring)", published by Oxford University Press in 1957. The song is noted in 9/4 time but with a 3/4 feel. |
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Click here to see pictures of the people who came