Lift Up Your Hearts

Last week the church of which a friend of mine is the Vicar was in the news when Beryl Bainbridge's funeral was held there. S Silas Kentish Town keeps its patronal festival on or about 17th July each year and I was there last weekend for the festivities. Their first Vicar was a hymn writer and he wrote a hymn for the patronal festival which has been part of the calendar of the Church of England in North London since the late 19th century.

Like a church that rises glorious

Far above some teeming street

So our hearts mount up victorious

"Sursum Corda" we repeat.

With his children gladly singing,

Stands their patron Saint today

And the courts of heaven are ringing

With the prisioners' festive lay.

The tune is Deerhurst

The reference to prisoners is drawn from the account of the miraculous release of Paul and Silas from prison. Acts 16:16-40. The rest of the hymn is to be found here. (Scroll down the page)