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A Retired Rector's Reflections

Christians awake!

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iangomersall

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Sergeant Frank Naden of the 6th Cheshire Territorials described how he kept Christmas Eve 1914 in the trenches of northern France.  “On Christmas Eve fireballs went up from the German lines and we shouted ‘Hurrah’ and ‘Let’s have another’. We sang Christians Awake and other Christmas hymns.’

One Christmas Day, William Brown, of Richmal Crompton’s wonderful William books, rises at 5am and places his family presents at bedroom doors while “singing Christians Awake at the top of his voice.”

I wonder how many army soldiers or boys of William’s age today could sing Christians Awake. It’s an almost forgotten Christmas hymn (with enchanting words and a wonderful tune). Ten years ago I wrote “If I were to move hearing Christians Awake will always remind me of Christmas morning at St Chrysostom’s.” Now, having moved, it does recall that Christmas Day mass, and the “celestial choir conspiring to sing hymns of joy, unknown before. (Here’s a lovely version of the hymn beginning the Christmas Eucharist on Christmas Day at Westminster Abbey in 2013).

Even with carols traditions change. Chatterton Dix’s  As with gladness is still regularly sung, but what of his once popular Christmas carol Joy fills our inmost heart today? I’ve never heard that sung.

Is there a carol which you seldom hear today which you remember from earlier years? One for me it is the rather eccentric King Jesus hath a Garden, with its ‘paradise bird’ and collection of unusual instruments. I remember it from school days, and it carrys with it for me the association of that time and place.

Another, Sidney Carter’s Every star shall sing a carol brings back powerful memories of being on placement, while training to be a priest, at Hollesley Bay Borstal and learning it with an inmate choir for the prison carol service.

So this year I am reflecting on when and where I learned a carols, and what memories return when I hear them.

Where did you learn the carols of Christmas? Who taught you? What memories return when you hear them? (You are very welcome to comment below).

5 responses to “Christians awake!”

  1. Opinion – 23 December 2024 | Thinking Anglicans

    […] Ian Gomersall A Retired Rector’s Reflections Christians awake! […]

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  2. Dave Fulton Avatar
    Dave Fulton

    We had a morning assembly at every school I ever attended and carols would have been part of the seasonal cycle. The words on giant flip charts at the front of the hall. The methodist chapel I attended from the age of 10 went carol singing every year and at some point in my teens I would have joined them with our Bethlehem carol sheets. Four or five hours was the order of the day and I suspect this was the routine that has imprinted the words and tunes in my head.

    Now in my seventh decade I’ll be attending my Parish church’s service of nine lessone and nine carols and only needing to consult my carol sheet for the order of the verses. The words are still present. I need a list to go shopping, but not to remember carols. Maybe if my wife were to put the list to music?

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  3. JN Williams Avatar
    JN Williams

    The chapel choir and choral society in secondary school – but before that in the family and church for hymns, particularly those celebrating equally the first and second comings.

    Favourites include “O come, ô come, Emmanuel”; “O little town of Bethlehem “; “In dulci jubilo”; “Past three o’clock”; “Lo, he comes with clouds descending”; “Hark, the glad sound”; and “Masters in this Hall”, which was usually the last of the songs we sang in recitals.

    One local church would sing “While shepherds watched their flocks” to the tune more commonly known as “On Ilkley Moor bar t’hat”. They were also into incense and that is a major memory.

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  4. Revd Michael Camp Avatar
    Revd Michael Camp

    Thanks Ian for reminding me of ‘Every Star Shall Sing a Carol’ We used to sing that loads but I haven’t heard it for years. Really lovely.

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  5. Head Verger Avatar
    Head Verger

    “Christians Awake” was used for the procession at Chesterfield yesterday morning. It still makes an annual appearance for the gradual hymn at Primrose Hill, so it certainly isn’t forgotten in what would once have been called Prayer Book Catholic circles.

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A Retired Rector reflects…

Welcome to a retired rector’s reflections. My name is Ian Gomersall, and I’m a retired Anglican priest living in the North East of England. Here, I share my thoughts on a variety of things which interest me, some delight me, some anger me, and many are passing thoughts.

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