Gimme that Old Fashioned Holbrook Sound

Sermon Morning Chapel – Royal Hospital School, Holbrook – Thursday 19 March 2026

Text:           Join the Song by Vicky Beeching

One day every voice will sing
Every beggar, prince and king
Every nation, tongue and tribe
Every ocean in between will cry, will cry

Praise God from whom all blessings flow
Praise Him all creatures here below
To Him all the glory belongs
Praise Him above you heavenly hosts
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost
Let all the earth sing along
Come join the song

Gathered round the throne above
We’ll be swept up in the melody
Hearts will overflow with love
We’ll be singing out a symphony, we’ll sing

Chorus:

The song that fills eternity
Sung throughout all history
As angels shout and kings lay down their crowns
We bow down

Chorus – repeats

(Play ‘Join the Song’ on Bluetooth speaker on the way to the pulpit)

God give you peace my sisters and brothers,

Nothing like a good old bit of Old-Fashioned Gospel praise to start the morning in Chapel is there?  If you enjoyed that the singer was Vicky Beeching – owner of the prestigious Cranmer Award for Worship from the Archbishop of Canterbury – and if you’d like to hear more have a peek at my WordPress blog ‘Suffolk Vicar’ which is looking at every one of her songs during Lent.  Well she did write just 40, so far…

Today I want to talk about singing.  Singing is something we do very well at RHS.  In a previous generation, they even did TV programmes about the Holbrook Sound, and the nation’s TV screens could do with even more today.  From Les Misérables last term to the Gala Concert tomorrow night and the jewel in-between them, my favourite, The House Shout.  I’m pleased to say that this year Collingwood (from whom I expect nothing less) acquitted themselves wonderfully.  All in all, even if one house, unable to make up its own mind, asked to be told, What they want, what they really really want, it was great fun and I look forward to future songs and sounds and shouts.

The Creation of Narnia: from The Magician’s Nephew by C. S. Lewis

It all begins with the sound of a faraway voice.  Although there are no words, hardly even a tune, the singing is the most beautiful sound the children have ever experienced.  Then the voice is joined by numerous others.  At the sound of these ‘cold, tingling, silvery voices’ innumerable stars suddenly appear in the sky, transforming it from pitch black to a blaze of light.  As the stars appear, so the high-pitched voices fall silent, while the deep voice continues to sound.  Next, they witness the sky gradually turning pale and revealing the outlines of the hills on the horizon.  As the sun sends out beams of light across the land, the singer himself becomes visible:  it is Aslan, appearing majestic and bright as he faces the sun, with his huge mouth open in song.  As the music switches to a softer, more lilting tone, grass begins to spread out across the land, heather covers the dark slopes of the hills, and trees and flowers, daisies, buttercups, lilacs and wild roses, gradually emerge from the fertile earth.

Polly is the first to make the direct connection between the song and the creation they are witnessing, so that it appears as if everything they see is coming out of the lion’s head.  This realization gives her a thrill – she is so excited by what she is observing that there is no time to feel frightened.  Uncle Andrew and the Witch, however, are terrified and desperate to get hold of the rings that will enable them to flee the scene.  Andrew’s concerns are focused on his sense of having been poorly treated and on his social status and reputation.  Finding Uncle Andrew’s complaining interfering with his ability to listen to the music, the Cabby silences him: ‘Oh stow it, Guv’nor, do stow it … Watchin’ listenin’s the thing at present; not talking.’^[1]

I know Aslan’s song and the whole idea of Narnia is part of C.S. Lewis very fecund imagination.  I also know that the Genesis account of a world made in six days, with an extra day added for rest and enjoyment, is part of an even older author’s attempt to explain how and why things came to be.  I know this isn’t how all things that came into being did come into being.  But I really do hope that, however God made the world, God did not just speak words but sang as well!

We are a poorer people if we have no song to sing.  And poorer still  if we have no voice at all.  I rejoice that each of us here, especially those who feel a little uncertain about who they are or what they will make of life, are given room to sing, room to speak, room to find a voice.

It is not easy speaking up is it?  Especially when you are the student and others are older and we hope wiser than us.  But the task each of us faces today and every day is to find our voice, to learn to sing our song.  No one else is going to sing it on our behalf.  If there is one thing that this place did for me was it was here where I found my voice and so with deep thanks I am grateful to be able to use the hashtag #RHSmadeMe.

When still the Duke of York, the later King George VI, laid the foundation stone of our buildings at Holbrook.  He was not very good at speaking.  He was in fact so bad at speaking that the movie The King’s Speech was made about him; it’s a bit sweary in places but is age rated 12+.  He was never meant to be in the public eye.  He was not intended to give wartime speeches to the Nation.  The man who had no voice found a voice and became able to lead a nation.  In him, particularly if at present we find ourselves without a voice, without a song, we have an example to imitate.

Both here in this Chapel and later when I was chaplain at St Martin’s School in Johannesburg I have learnt that I need places to sing and places to cry and sometimes even do both at same time.  Friends, whatever else you will learn during your time here in Holbrook, I pray that you will find your voice and learn to sing.  Be it during the very next hymn, or in the cast of our next Musical production, or tomorrow evening at the Gala Concert, or the next House Shout, or even screaming your lungs out to support Collingwood (other houses are available) on the Playing field.  

We have much to gain, as St Augustine of Hippo reminds us, ‘Those who sing, pray twice’.  Come with me and Join the Song.

[This blog ‘Gimme that Old Fashioned Holbrook Sound’ is copyright © Andrew Dotchin 2026 and may be reproduced without charge on condition that the source is acknowledged] 

oooOOOooo

 

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^[1] A prècis of the fuller account taken from the book ‘Wardrobes and Rings’: https://canterburypress.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9781786226891/wardrobes-and-rings