The United Reformed Church (URC) is saddened to learn of the death of the Revd Alan Gaunt at the age of 88.
Alan Gaunt was a URC minister and an internationally renowned hymn writer. Eighteen of his hymns are in Rejoice and Sing, a collection of hymns and songs for the URC which he helped to shape and edit. His hymns reached beyond the URC and many Christians sing and will sing his words.
Alan also wrote the responses added to the Statement concerning the Nature, Faith and Order of the URC, which was approved by General Assembly in 1990 and is much more widely used now than the original version.
The Revd Dr Susan Durber, World Council of Churches President for Europe, for whom Alan was a long-standing mentor and friend, said: “Alan was one of our deepest thinkers and finest poets, convinced that finding words to express faith should be difficult and demanding because God’s mystery cannot be contained.
“He worked hard at finding the best words he could for preaching, praying and singing and would settle for nothing less. To hear him preach was to be transported and uplifted – it was exhilarating and stretching.
“Few could ever match his hymn writing or his crafting of prayers – he was our Isaac Watts and our Cranmer, writing texts to treasure and with which to celebrate the Gospel. Being his apprentice was a privilege, but also a reminder that ministry is work, craft and perseverance. He was not always happy or contented, but he taught me and many others to live ‘always from joy’ and to give everything to the God who made us.”
Born in Manchester in 1935, Alan attended Silcoates School, Lancashire Independent College and Manchester University, where he spent five years training for the Congregational ministry. He was ordained at Clitheroe in 1958 and married Winifred a week later. They had two children, Miriam and Paul.
It was at Clitheroe, in the early 1960s, that Alan began writing hymns.
Alan served Congregational and United Reformed churches in different parts of the North of England with his final pastorate in Windermere, where Fred Kaan was a regular member of the congregation.
In 2000, Alan and Winifred retired to Little Neston in the Wirral, where he was Minister of Heswall URC from 1974 to 85.
His first half dozen hymns were sent to Erik Routley, an English Congregational churchman, musician and theologian and musician who was one of the most significant hymnologists of the 20th century. Erik subsequently wrote the introduction to Alan’s New Prayers for Worship, which was a bestseller in the UK, New Zealand and Australia
Prayers for the Christian Year came later and was based on the Joint Liturgical Group Lectionary and included prayers for every Sunday for two years. Each Day’s Delight, a collection of 31 prayers also proved very popular.
New Hymns for Worship was published in the 1970s. Following a homemade collection of 46 Hymn Texts and Translations in 1988, Alan’s main work is published in The Hymn Texts of Alan Gaunt, 1991; Always From Joy, 1997, the year he received an Honorary MA from Manchester University for his work as a hymnwriter and translator; and Delight that Never Dies, 2003. A volume of his poems, The Space Between, appeared in 2009.
Along with Rejoice and Sing, Alan’s hymns appear in Common Praise, 2000; Sing Praise, 2010; and the Canadian Common Praise, 1998.
Alan’s Committall will take place on 7 August at Chester Crematorium at 1.20pm. This will be followed by a Service of Thanksgiving for his life and ministry at Parkgate and Neston URC at 2.30pm which will also be livestreamed. Join the Service of Thansgiving on Zoom.
The service will be livestreamed via Zoom. Join the Service of Thanksgiving online.
image: Stainer.co.uk