Objects of Substance- Hymn Book

An assortment of BGGS hymn books dating 1962 to early 1970s.

During the time I was a student at Grammar, all students attended assembly every morning in the Auditorium, lined up in classes, standing up the whole time, while the then Headmistress [for me, Mrs Louise McDonald] stood on the stage behind an imposing lectern in front of the staff. The one item you simply had to take to Assembly was your hymn book, small and rectangular, and usually stored in the top pocket of your blouse. Winter was better as you could keep your hymn book in one of your blazer pockets all the time. Later, as a teacher at this school, I once had the privilege of being the House Group teacher of a group of girls among whom several identified as belonging to each of four major religions, as well as students who were not religious at all. This class provided me with the opportunity to listen to one of the liveliest class discussions I have ever heard – and it was not about uniform or test results or formal dresses but stemmed from a question about why this School sang Anglican hymns. A range of views was aired from “I don’t agree, so I just don’t sing” to “We don’t do many things as a total school community. I kind of like the fact that we all sing together”. There was a final position on which most of the girls seemed to agree: that it was not religion per se but the sentiments their words advocated that were important: community; giving; doing good; having a belief in a future; love; gratitude. These principles strike a chord with the modern emphasis within the School on the precepts of mindfulness now so much a part of the day-to-day life of the students and the staff. However, over time there has been a steady decrease hymn-singing, indeed such a sharp decline that today only two remain a constant: the School hymn and the leaving hymn. And when did a hymn become designated the “School hymn”? In the 1990 School Magazine, it was noted that “Fight the good fight” was thought to be the School hymn, perhaps because this was the final hymn on the eight-page, double-sided printed sheet used from about the 1940s to the 1960s before the advent of the hymn book. In 1983, "Now thank we all our God" was sung as the closing