wordsout by godfrey rust
Occasions & Nonsense


Words for All Souls

Occasional pieces for the congregation of All Souls, Langham Place, central London


Just as she is (for Helen Macintosh, 2005)

Roger Simpson's calypso (1984)

True Brit (the ballad of Andrew Cornes) (1984)

The Bewespeak calypso (for Richard Bewes, 1984)

Not The Basic Method (for Andrew Cornes, 1983)

The LinkUp calypso (for the LinkUp team, 1983)

The Pilgrim Hall calypso (1983)


I was a member of the congregation at All Souls - at that time the "evangelical cathedral" of London - from late 1980 until the end of 1985, during which time I shared the leadership of various activities and met and married Tessa.

I fell into the role of 'bard' by documenting various events and personal histories in song or rhyme to a greater or (usually) lesser degree of accuracy. Michael Lawson, who was curate and Director of Pastoring at the time, started it by asking me to report to the weekly prayer meeting on a training weekend "in any way I liked", so I wrote the Pilgrim Hall Calypso. Somewhere there may exist a copy of my farewell tribute for Michael: all I remember is that it contained the comment on his dietary regime "He was a pastor eating pasta past a point of no return". If anyone has it...

At the time the form, rendered with a mock Jamaican accent, was unremarkable, but would now be considered politically incorrect.