Soul and Spirit, An Exploration of Hymns and Hymn Singing

Panel in the chapel of Christ’s Hospital, by Frank Brangwyn, courtesy Christ's Hospital' [Toby Phillips Photography]

Philip Griffiths and Peter Shears will lead a series of four sessions exploring some of our best-loved hymns. All sessions are on Mondays at St. Anne’s Church, Western Road, Lewes, beginning 2/11/26, and run from 10 am to 11.30 am, as

follows…

Monday 2nd November

Hymns of Love

What forms of love do we encounter in some of our best-known hymns? What is ‘perfect love’? How might our souls experience divine love? In this first session we’ll reflect on these and other questions, and we’ll explore what happens when we sing these familiar words and tunes together.

Monday 9th November

Hymns of Praise and Wonder

How does hymn singing help us to praise God and Creation? What do we mean when we address God as ‘King’? What sort of ‘Lord’ are we praising? In our second session we’ll consider ways in which four hymns invite us to join in worshipping a God who challenges us to see power and authority in new and liberating ways.

Monday 16th November

Hymns of Journeying and Encounter

How can we use the words and tunes of some well-known hymns to help us as we journey through the challenges of everyday life, with all its ups and downs? In the third session we explore some of the ways in which hymns can help rally our spirits and teach us ways of fighting our own personal ‘foes’ and giants’.

Monday 23rd or Monday 30th November [tbc]

Hymns that echo our own Souls and Spirits

The hymns we sing and discuss this week will be ones chosen by the group. ones do we love, and why?

And finally

We’ll have a special evening Hymns of praise service using some of our favourite hymns and readings.