Wednesday 3 September 2008

Preparation

Because of the nature of this 11-parish Benefice, I have to prepare the Sunday choice of hymns well in advance. This afternoon I sat down to work through to Advent Sunday, and by the time I needed to leave for a meeting at 7.10 p.m. I had got to the last Sunday of October.

It's not just choosing the hymns to fit the Lectionary (for which I have a list of suggestions) but also the tunes, and then noting down the numbers of the tunes in the various books used by our different organists. I have to work with Hymns Ancient & Modern Revised, Mission Praise, 100 Hymns for Today, and tunes from those plus Ancient & Modern Standard and Ancient & Modern New Standard.

I like my study desk to be reasonably clear. It tells me that I'm on top of things, that everything is ready.

This was my desk this afternoon .....


... and it's no better this evening!

Tomorrow it will be done, and then I can start looking at Sunday's sermon.

2 comments:

  1. HOW many hymnals? And HHT as well? No need to look at Sunday's sermon because I think I can see it. It's the third sheet of paper halfway down the second pile on the left, towards the back. That's it!

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  2. Unfortunately not, RR. That was LAST week's sermon, waiting to be filed. Yes, I keep them. God knows why. Except that looking back at the first ones from 1984 makes me wonder how I ever was thought fit to be ordained in the first place! They're PANTS!

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