| This
tender hymn evokes the little ones of creation and the downtrodden
or anawim. It creates word paintings of small cottage
gardens and public botanical gardens.
This
hymn sums up and celebrates the life and work of an extraordinary
woman, who
was a close family friend. Katrine Brown (1913-2000), after
whom the tune is named,
showed that a passion for social justice and working for
the downtrodden (the anawim) are not incompatible with a
love of beauty. Katrine’s garden was a riot of colour
and at times its different perfumes were intoxicating.
The
music, written with Peter Low, has a very gentle, nursery-rhyme
feel, so that you
can almost hear the pitter patter of little feet as you
sing. The harmonies at the end of
the verse create a sense of dignity and grandeur. While
this hymn has been written for the piano, it can also be
played on the organ. It works well in Taizé services
and has a simple Latin refrain.
The
start of the first verse is based on a passage in ‘Appel’
written by the noted New
Zealand poet, Ursula Bethell (1875-1945). For me, the hospitality
of the garden and
human hospitality go hand in hand. I like to play with the
metaphor of the garden as a
‘city’, full of its own complex relationships.
This embeds the teleology of the Bible, which begins with
the Garden of Eden and ends with the City of God in the
Book of Revelation.
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