Come and find the quiet centre

Come and find the quiet centre. Shirley Erena Murray* (1931-2020). This hymn, a favourite among North American congregations, was originally written in 1989 for a New Zealand Presbyterian Women’s Conference whose theme was ‘Making Space’. There it was sung to a Gaelic folk melody from the island of Lewis, also used in the Scottish CH4. When it was published in Shirley Murray’s first major American collection, In Every Corner, Sing: The Hymns of Shirley Erena Murray (1992), it was set to a serene American folk melody, BEACH SPRING, arranged by Jack Schrader. It has since been published in a number of North American and British hymnals such as RS, VU, Worship and Rejoice (2001) and...