Christopher Martin Idle (born 11 September 1938) is a British

hymnodist A hymnwriter (or hymn writer, hymnist, hymnodist, hymnographer, etc.) is someone who writes the text, music, or both of hymns. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the composition of hymns dates back to before the time of David, who is traditionally ...

Life

Idle was born in

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is southeast of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 88,000 as of 2023. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, charte ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, and was educated at

Eltham College Eltham College is a private day school situated in Mottingham, southeast London. Eltham and Mottingham once formed part of the same parish, hence its name. It is a member of The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC). Early history ...

. After leaving school, he spent three years in various forms of employment, as well as becoming involved in the

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is an organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nucl ...

. He then studied at

St Peter's College, Oxford St Peter's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. Located on New Inn Hall Street, Oxford, United Kingdom, it occupies the site of two of the university's academic halls of the Univers ...

, graduating in 1962, before undertaking theological training at Clifton Theological College,

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

Church ministry

Idle was made a

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian denominations, such as the Cathol ...

in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

in 1965, and ordained as a

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

the following year. His first

curacy A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' () of souls of a parish. In this sense, ''curate'' means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy who are ass ...

was at St Mark's, Barrow-in-Furness, and his second at Christ Church, Camberwell, where he served from 1968 to 1971. In 1971, he became the priest-in-charge of St Matthias', Poplar, and in 1976 became the rector of St Anne's Limehouse. In 1989, he moved to Suffolk and became the rector of seven churches. He returned to London in 1995, joining Christ Church, Camberwell as a part-time Associate Minister in 1997. He is a member of

Reform Reform refers to the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The modern usage of the word emerged in the late 18th century and is believed to have originated from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement, which ...

Hymn writing

Christopher Idle began writing hymns in the 1960s, while he was a curate in Barrow-in-Furness. His first compositions were "Christ the light who shines unfading" and "Lord, you sometimes speak in wonders". He was part of a group of composers who formed Jubilate Hymns, along with Michael Baughen, Michael Saward and Michael Perry. He contributed compositions to two early collections by the Jubilate Group, ''Youth Praise 2'' (1969) and ''Psalm Praise'' (1973), which features nineteen of his

metrical psalms A metrical psalter is a kind of Bible translation: a book containing a verse translation of all or part of the Book of Psalms in vernacular poetry, meant to be sung as hymns in a church. Some metrical psalters include melodies or harmonisatio ...

. In 1982, Idle was part of the committee who produced the hymnal ''Hymns for Today's Church'', which featured 35 of his own compositions. Some of Idle's compositions have been inspired by contemporary events, such as "Let us run with perseverance", written for the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

Notable works

Hymns

Idle has written more than four hundred hymns. Almost every major contemporary hymnal includes texts by Idle. Three collections of his hymns have been published: ''Light Upon the River'' (1998), ''Walking by the River'' (2008) and ''Trees Along the River'' (2018). ''Light Upon the River'' is the most substantial collection of his hymns, with 279 compositions. Its name is taken from Idle's hymn "As the light upon the river", written for the Diocese of Southwark's 75th anniversary in 1980. The book launch, held at All Souls, Langham Place, coincided with Idle's 60th birthday. ''Walking by the River'' includes 100 new items, and ''Trees Along the River'' contains 117 texts, published in September 2018 to mark Idle's 80th birthday. "Eternal light, shine in my heart" has been included in ''

The Hymnal 1982 ''The Hymnal 1982'' is the primary hymnal of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. It is one in a series of seven official hymnals of the Episcopal Church, including ''The Hymnal 1940''. Unlike many Anglican churches (including t ...

'', '' Together in Song'', and '' Voices United'', while "God, we praise you! God we bless you!" is in ''

Christian Worship In Christianity, worship is the act of attributing reverent honour and homage to God. In the New Testament, various words are used to refer to the term worship. One is ("to worship") which means to bow down to God or kings. Worship in the N ...

'', '' Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary'', and '' Together in Song''. Other hymns by Idle include "This earth belongs to God", "Spirit of holiness", "When lawless men succeed", "Freedom and life are ours", "Then I saw a new heaven and earth", and "As sons of the day and daughters of light". Idle has been part of what has been described as a British "hymn explosion" since World War II.

Other works

As well as his own compositions, Idle is a respected hymnologist. He has contributed to a number of books, journals and newspapers. He served as editor of ''News of Hymnody'' from 1986 to 1992 and 1999 to 2000, and of the ''Bulletin of the Hymn Society'' from 2002 to 2003. Books by Christopher Idle include ''Hymns in Today's Language?'' (1982), which discusses the compilation of ''Hymns for Today's Church,'' and ''Exploring Praise!'' (2007), which comments on the contents of the 2000 hymnal ''Praise!.''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Idle, Christopher 1938 births Living people People from Bromley Writers from the London Borough of Bromley Christian hymnwriters English hymnwriters People educated at Eltham College Alumni of St Peter's College, Oxford 20th-century English Anglican priests 21st-century English Anglican priests