Notebook

It is perfectly true, as the editors of a revised Church of England hymn book Maintain, that many hymns have become unintelligible to people of only modest in- telligence. I remember my perplexity at school when we sang 'There is a green hill

far away without a city wall.' I wondered

Why it was thought to be necessary to draw attention to the absence of a city wall in a Why it was thought to be necessary to draw attention to the absence of a city wall in a

Place where one would be most unlikely to find one. There was another hymn which rather thrilled me with the apparent

blasphemy of its opening line — 'Jesus lives ne longer now'. The line in fact read 'Jesus lives! No longer now . . .', but it was quite a long time before I realised this. If 'HYmns for Today's Church' had been in use during my childhood, I would not have fallen victim to this sort of confusion. I would have been singing 'There is a green hill far away outside a city wall' and 'Jesus lives! Your terrors now...' Everything would have been clear. On the other hand, I would probably have forgotten both hymns b! now. 'Hymns for Today's Church' is to be Published next month by Hodder and f1-ighton. The book is already notorious „°r containing a rewritten National An- lent. This revised version of 'God Save the Queen', which rejects the triumphalism of the original in favour of the sort of sen- t,,nnents one normally associates with the 'e'cial Democratic Party, was leaked to the Press at the height of the Falklands fever, ringing its unfortunate authors into

Bishop contempt. But to be fair to the

,uishoP of Chester and his revision commit-

lee, they have not made a habit of re-

writing hymns completely. In most cases they have satisfied themselves with some tinkering — changing 'Thou' to 'You' and

getting rid of old-fashioned verb forms en-

ding in '-est' or '-eth' which, they say, pre-

sent insuperable problems to Christians Who have left school without taking any

exams'. If the purpose of their efforts had rbrierelY been to produce a special hymn oak for dunces, then one would raise no 9biections. But they see it as the final stage

In a process of 'modernisation' which, dur-

ing the past 20 years, has transformed

church services, making them possibly

ebasier to follow, but emptying them of their eat-4Y and drama. In an explanatory pam-

Dhlet accompanying the new hymn book,

one of its editors, Mr Christopher Idle,

,

surnlnarises the outrages already Perpetrated. The Church, he says, 'has ap- proved modern Bible translations for public use; it has battled its way towards modern- l Language versions of most of its services; it has found it necessary en route to update

collects, creeds and canticles. Only the hymns remain.' Or did. The irony is that many of the clumsy changes to the hymns are a direct consequence of the 'modernisa- tion' of the Bible. Modern churchgoers can- not apparently recognise traditional Bible references. Mr Idle writes: `To someone knowing his 1611 version, the hymn book presents few difficulties of this kind; but can today's worshippers pick up allusions to the "great desires of nations", the "man of sorrows", or even to "I know that my Redeemer liveth", all of which have chang- ed in modern translations?'

I am afraid that the editors of 'Hymns for Today's Church' have not even con- fined themselves to making the words in- telligible to readers of the Good News Bi- ble. Other more sinister criteria have been used in the process of revision. For exam- ple, they asked themselves the question: `Should we yield to the strong pressure against the generalised use of "men" and "mankind", "sons" and "brothers"?' And the answer came: 'We resolved that often we should. We have enough sympathy with the anti-sexist lobby to want to remove thoughtless stumbling blocks to Christian worship — though not enough to be ruth- less, and certainly not enough to reduce God the Father to heavenly "parent".' Mr Idle also laments that in some older hymns the word 'blackness' is used as a symbol of sin, death, or hell. 'This can cause deep hurt, and is easily changed — as is the word "leper" which no leprosy worker would now use, and which the World Health Organisation banned long ago.' (So the World Health Organisation has become one of the arbiters of the language used in hymns.) Other words to which the editors took exception are 'bosom', 'breast', and `gay' on the grounds that nobody can sing them nowadays without laughing. 'Hymns for Today's Church' is a sad reflection of the ludicrous times in which we live.

Icannot now remember why it was that Mr John De Lorean originally decided to establish his sports car factory in Belfast. No doubt he had good commercial or philanthropic reasons. But, in the light of his arrest in Los Angeles last week, I was in-

terested to learn that Ireland is one of the few countries in the world where pure co- caine is easily obtainable. It is, so I am assured, freely available through the veterinary service as an anaesthetic for horses. But I doubt if this fact has much to do with anything.

How does one deal with the outbursts of irrational anger which one so often encounters in London nowadays? Recently, as I was driving to work, a taxi driver drew up beside me and pulled down his window. So I amiably wound down my window to hear what he had to say. 'Are you a c... or something?' he asked, to my amazement. I replied that I wasn't, that this was clearly a

case of mistaken identity 'Yes you are,' he insisted, 'You're a f c...' By now he was spitting with rage and looked as if he might explode. I hadn't the faintest idea what on earth I could have done to provoke such fury. So I just smiled patronisingly and told him what an unhappy little man he must be if he made a habit of addressing people in such a manner. This was probably a mistake, for he looked as if he might easily kill me. However, I am told it is reasonably safe to provoke taxi drivers by laughing at them, because they know that if they resort to violence, they will lose their licences.

Marika Hanbury Tenison, who died of cancer last weekend at the age of 43, used to write a cookery column for the Spectator. But this was merely a sideline for a woman of exceptional energy. She was not only the author of countless cookery books and articles, but, when she was not looking after the family farm on Bodmin Moor, would accompany her explorer hus- band Robin on his travels. In one of her Spectator columns she described the pro- blems of cooking for one of his expeditions in the jungles of Borneo. For months on end she managed to nourish 25 scientists with dishes made from a variety of nameless fishes, monkeys and snakes. She even made bacon from a wild boar. Marika was a per- son of remarkable enthusiasm, ingenuity and courage, who will be greatly missed both by her readers and her friends.

Next week, in association with Averys, the Bristol wine merchants, we will be launching the Spectator Wine Club. Each month we will offer readers a good,wine (or wines) at a generous discount. The selection of the wines will be made by Auberon Waugh, who is something of an expert in these matters, as he has spent many years building up an impressive cellar. His recom- mendations will be determined only by a desire to give readers the opportunity to buy high quality wines at bargain prices and they will be wines that he covets himself. We are looking forward to a big response.

Alexander Chancellor