THE
P RTAL
March 2019
Page 22
Poems and Hymns
by Brian Alvan Gill
Reviewed by Fr Simon Ellis
B rian Gill
was brought up in Kingstown, St Vincent in the West Indies. He was immersed in the
Anglican Cathedral tradition at St George. He dreamt of becoming an architect, but after his mother’s
death in 1953, felt a call to the priesthood. He studied with the Mirfield Fathers at Codrington College in
Barbados. Gill later became the Vicar General of the Traditional Anglican Church in Britain, but is now a
Catholic Ordinariate priest, coordinating the Presteigne Ordinariate group in Mid-Wales. What a journey!
This compilation of ninety five poems and hymns
Gill has also composed twelve hymns, including ‘A
distils thoughts from over sixty years of ministry. Christmass Carol’, which illustrates faith and hope in
There are poems which are deeply moving, like the the Word made flesh, source of all joy:
verses written after his mother’s death.
‘Stay still mankind and pause awhile
And see a glorious sight.
There is a poem entitled ‘A nutmeg from Grenada’
With eyes of faith see angel hosts
invoking images of all that hurricanes can cause to
In floods of silvery light.
be washed up on other shores, and there are so many
With ears of faith above the din
more moving poems rooted in the Caribbean, which
Of earthly sad lament,
evoke abundant life, for example, in the poem ‘At Villa
Hear songs of praise the angels sing
Point, St Vincent’, he images all creatures singing a Te
In utter wonderment….’
Deum to God their King, whilst the fish leap with the
joy of praise.
One small offshoot of Newman’s impending
canonisation may be to give Catholic hymnody a
There are also well known hymns which Gill has boost? We can hope and pray that new hymn writers
supplemented with Eucharistic verses. These include will be inspired and inspiring. Fr Gill has made his
hymns such as ‘The God of Abraham Praise’, ‘Father hear contribution, which is valued. Now, one can only hope
the prayer we offer’, ‘Take up thy cross’, ‘O my Saviour that others look further at the re-enchantment of the
lifted’ and the ‘Stabat Mater’. All of the hymns have the sacred liturgy, including the ‘precious gift’, the ‘treasure
meter and suggested tunes from the English Hymnal or to be shared’ (to quote the language of Anglicanorum
New English Hymnal. Anglican Patrimony, indeed.
Coetibus) which is Anglican poetry and hymnody.
Catholics and Brexit ... continued from page 9
Western Roman Empire at the beginning of the fifth
century, and Augustine demonstrates how it was
motivated by self-love, violence and false worship:
by contrast the Christian’s home is the ‘heavenly city’,
founded on love of Christ and others. ‘Brexit’ is really
about national self-love. The repeated calls now to
patriotism and the scapegoating of some people as
‘enemies of the people’, for example, are not accidental
side-effects of ‘Brexit’: they are basic to its sense of
values. The name-calling and unpleasantness in public
life, so dominant at the moment, are a natural product.
A poisoned tree does not produce good fruit.
These are three of the most important reasons for
Catholic opposition to ‘Brexit’; they may not give us
comfort in these difficult days, but they should give us
strength and confidence to carry on arguing the case
and put forward authentic Catholic teaching.
I don’t believe, by the way, that we can be reconciled
to something which is so clearly wrong, and somehow
‘move on’, as some have suggested (e.g. Archbishop
Welby in his book last year Reimagining Britain). If
a national decision (if you can call it that) is morally
flawed and wrong, your responsibility is to get it
changed.
Fr Ashley Beck is a priest of the Southwark
archdiocese and responsible for the
academic formation programme for
permanent deacons for most of the dioceses of
southern England, including the Ordinariate;
he also teaches at St Mary’s University.
For details of the university’s new MA degree
in Catholic Social Teaching contact him
at [email protected].