“First Flight Feathers” on Iona
Added about a week ago by Gillian R. Warson
Sacristy Press author Gillian Warson looks ahead to co-leading a hymn-writing weekend on Iona and to singing some of the hymns originally published in Worship Live and available in First Flight Feathers: The Best of Worship Live
It is a great honour—and a big surprise–to be invited to join two hymn-writers from America, Adam Tice and Sally-Ann Morris, to be part of the team leading a week called Singing to Change the World on Iona in May 2025. Participants from all over the world will be joining us to extend their hymn writing journey whether they are experienced writers or composers, or whether they are just beginning to develop their craft. As planning with Adam and Sally started, I realized that I was keen to share some of the work I had done with contributors to Worship Live, bringing together writers and composers who had learned to share and develop their work, thus forming a strong sense of community.
We know that those attending the week on Iona will be willing to share and discuss their hymns and this model is exactly the one so familiar from our beloved Worship Live weekends. On these occasions, participants grouped together to write, compose and perform hymns which were then sung in a final act of worship. Frequent plenaries meant that the whole group could contribute with their suggestions as the final forms of the hymns emerged.
Worship Live as a formal periodical came to an end in 2016, but its legacy lives on in the collection First Flight Feathers which was published by Sacristy Press in 2023, edited by Janet Wootton and me. I decided to use this book as the basis for my sessions on Iona and to introduce some of the hymns during our worship sessions. Obviously, I am very familiar with the contents since Janet and I spent many hours reacquainting ourselves with the contents of all the issues of Worship Live. Now I can go back over First Flight Feathers and decide which items to choose for the “Wee Sing” which will be held on the Sunday evening on Iona.
The purpose of Worship Live was to allow writers to explore themes that they considered to be important in the moment—whether that was global or local, political or environmental. As I return to the collection, I am amazed (and perhaps a little saddened) that much of the material remains relevant. I have chosen three hymns for the “Wee Sing”. Starting with Imagine a world where our leaders aren’t liars by regular Worship Live contributor, Kim Fabricius. It’s a bold hymn which calls us to contrast a world of greed and corruption with the world as God intended. In so doing, he recalls the prophetic vision of justice and righteousness, turning from imagining to deciding and doing! My second hymn is by Bernard Braley, the instigator of Worship Live. The hymn In affairs of economics, appeared in the launch edition of Worship Live and focuses on the prophet Amos. It is both lively and challenging. My third choice is the lovely short hymn Gentle to understand by musician and educator Louise Counsell. Here we are reminded that despite all that we suffer, the love of Jesus will sustain us.
I’m very much looking forward to introducing First Flight Feathers to a brand new group of users. It is exciting to recall the energy of our Worship Live hymn writing weekends, and although some of the material was only transient in its appeal, it is delightful to be reminded that many items remain relevant and—importantly—singable today.
Hymns are dynamic and there are always discussions and changes to be made. We see this as much in our contemporary hymns as we do in older texts. It is in the spirit of sharing and community that we can build a strong hymn-singing community that will help towards bringing active change in our world. First Flight Feathers shows that hymn-writing can be a rewarding shared activity and I hope the book will find its way into many suitcases after the Iona week!
Photo: Reading Tom (CC-BY) via Wikimedia Commons
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