James Seddon

Born at Scarisbrick, between Ormskirk and Southport in Lancashire, 24 August 1915. Educated at King George V Grammar School, Southport; Durham University; and Tyndale Hall, Bristol (LTh 1939).

He was ordained in 1939 to be a curate in Everton, then in Toxteth and Southport.

From 1945 to 1955 he worked in North Africa, serving in Tangier and Demnat Marrakesh in Morocco with the Bible Churchmen's Missionary Society (now Crosslinks). With his wife Mavis he became a fluent speaker of French and Arabic; their pioneer work in the Atlas Mountains showed few visible results, but laid foundations for those who followed, and for local Christians who became leaders of their small and often persecuted churches.

On returning to England, Jim Seddon became the society's Home Secretary until 1967, and a well- known pianist at the annual Keswick Convention. From 1967 to 1974 he was Rector of Hawkwell, then of Peldon and two of its Essex neighbours until his retirement to Colchester in 1980. He died following major heart surgery in London on 19 September 1983.

A year earlier he had seen the launch of his last major hymnal project, 'Hymns for Today's Church', for which he had been the senior committee member, and for a time the Hon. Secretary of Jubilate Hymns, the group working on the book since 1974.

But his hymnwriting career had begun much earlier. Before most others, he saw the need to supplement the older 'missionary' hymns with fresher and more relevant texts which still conveyed the essential truth and worldwide urgency of the Christian gospel.

His hymns and songs were born from his Moroccan experiences. Some of the first were in Arabic; some English ones were issued in booklet form before appearing in the best-selling 'Youth Praise' in 1966. He wrote some 30 hymns in all.

He also served on the more traditional committee for the 'Anglican Hymn Book' of 1965; again for 'Psalm Praise' (1973) which included 10 of his paraphrases; 'Keswick Praise' (1975) with 8 texts, and then 'Hymns for Today's Church' with 14, of which five characteristically come in the 'Mission and Ministry' section. These include 'Go forth and tell' which appears in more than twenty UK books.

In any kind of dispute, Jim Seddon was a peacemaker. When finalising his hymns he would gladly seek help and take advice. Latterly his silver-haired dignity would sometimes belie his youthful zeal and fresh perceptions, just as his wealth of experience and expertise could be hidden by an unfailingly gracious humility.