Jubilate Celebration - 50 years since Youth Praise
What a great day we had! Writers, composers and supporters of Jubilate and RESOUNDworship all joined for a day-conference at All Souls Langham Place on Saturday 15th October in celebration of half a century of new songs and hymns that began with the ground-breaking Youth Praise in 1966. The morning programme was brilliantly chaired by Michael Baughen, and included stories and interviews, singing much-loved hymns and favourite songs together. The afternoon contained a new songs workshop and an opportunity to join the future vision in the launch of a new charity working with song and hymn writers.
Speakers and contributors included Michael Baughen, Richard Bewes, Timothy Dudley-Smith, Sam Hargreaves, Chris Idle, Steve James, Ellyn Oliver, Matt Osgood, Joel Payne, Roger Peach, David Peacock, Christian Strover, Noël Tredinnick, Norman Warren and David Wilson.
At the start and end of the day we enjoyed inspiring worship led by Noël Tredinnick, Sam Hargreaves and band, instrumentalists and soloists, including the wonderful British soprano Joanne Lunn. Christopher Idle's new hymn In psalms and hymns of joyful/youthful praise was sung with gusto to a new tune composed especially for the occasion - this can be found here . Steve James closed with a challenging address based on the searching question in Psalm 137:4: How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?
Many thanks to Janet O'Brien, to Langham Arts and the All Souls team for their fantastic hosting of this landmark event, and to Joel Payne, Noël Tredinnick & Michael Baughen who did the bulk of the organisation. Look out for snippets on a BBC Songs of Praise probably sometime in November.