Christopher Idle

Christopher Martin Idle was born in Bromley Kent, in 1938. He attended Eltham College, and afterwards worked for three years in an office, a shop and a hospital. He studied English at St Peter's College, Oxford, and trained for ordination at Clifton Theological College, Bristol. In 1963 he married Marjorie who was then nursing. Four sons followed, now married, and there are twelve grandchildren.

Chris ministered for thirty years in Anglican parishes in Cumbria, London and Suffolk. A second spell of parish and schools ministry in Peckham, SE London, ended soon after Marjorie's death in 2003. Chris retired to a bungalow in Bromley, then in 2013 moved to a high-rise flat in Herne Hill, SE24, not far from his eldest son Timothy. He joined Grace Church Dulwich and also St Paul's, Herne Hill. He has reluctantly given up football and early-morning jogging, but (often with family) watches Bromley and Barrow AFCs.

Chris was a member of the editorial groups for 'Psalm Praise', 'Hymns for Today's Church', 'Anglican Praise', 'Sing Glory' and 'Praise!'. His hymn-collections are Light upon the River (Hope Publishing 1998), Walking by the River (The Good Book Company and Hope Publishing 2008) and Trees along the River (Lost Coin Books and Hope Publishing 2018). Other publications include 'The Lion Book of Favourite Hymns', 'Hymns in Today's Language?', 'The Journals of John Wesley' (abridged), 'Christmas Carols and their Stories', 'What shall we sing?', 'The Word we preach, the words we sing' and 'Real Hymns, Real Hymn Books'. He has edited the quarterly 'News of Hymnody' and the Bulletin of the Hymn Society, and has been a frequent contributor and reviewer for several Christian weekly and monthly periodicals. He wrote over 320 'Christian Comment' columns for two local newspapers, and has continued to write for several periodicals including Churchman, Evangelicals Now, New Directions, the Bulletin of the Hymn Society of GB and Ireland and the Journal of the Prayer Book Society. He has contributed to the online Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology, and still speaks occasionally on hymns, hymn¬books and issues of peace, war and Christian mission.