John Gardener R.I.P 1930-2025 My Tribute to John

Who will save our land and people
Who can rescue us from wrong
We are lost—faint, false, and foolish—
We have slighted God too long.
Save the people, Lord our Saviour,
Guide us home from country far;
Holy Fire, consume our rancours:
Thy Kingdom come—in Africa

Make our land as clean and wholesome
As the white of sea-washed sands;
Stretch our vision vast and boundless
As our brown-spread, dusty lands.
Make our people strong and steadfast
As the hills that claw our sky;
Hear our prayer for land and people:
“God bless Africa”, we cry.

We believe God is our Saviour;
Christ enough to heal our land.
He will use the Church, His servants:
We on earth His stretched-out hand.
May His Church in loving service,
Shown to all whose path is rough,
Give a clear, united witness,
And proclaim: “Christ is enough!”

Christ enough to break all barriers;
Christ enough in peace, in strife;
Christ enough to build our nation;
Christ enough for death, for life.
Christ enough for old and lonely;
Christ enough for those who fall;
Christ enough to save the sin-sick;
Christ enough for one—for all!

Bishop Storey about how John Gardeners Hymn came to be written

Hello Bob.
We’re all grieving John’s loss. What a friend and what a giant intellect, passionate truth-teller and humble Christ – follower!

The back story for me is that he was my Sunday School teacher – the only one I really took seriously – at Rosebank Methodist Church when my dad was the minister there in the 1950s. We became deep friends and later we did a lot of things together as part of a group of Young Turks led by Alex Boraine committed to stirring up the MCSA in the 1960s.

Now to your question: as part of that stirring, some of us persuaded our superiors to invite Alan Walker – a Methodist preacher unafraid of confronting political injustice – to apartheid SA in I963. Part of the preparation for that preaching mission was a regular newspaper called “Christian Impact“. I was editor with Tony Heard (then a cub reporter at the Cape Times), and John as assistant editors. Yes, looking back the pecking order was amusing!

It was then that John came up with his amazing hymn called “Christ Enough,” which was first published in Impact, and sung on every gathering during the 1963 Mission.

John chose the Xhosa tune Methodists often use for Charles Wesley’s “Love Divine” – a powerful melody called ‘Nkosi’yam’ that guaranteed that it would be widely sung across black Methodism as well.

It was first published “Celebration 70– songs of God in his world today“ in 1970 but it had already taken off all over the place by then and has remained as relevant today as it was in 1963.

John wrote many hymns but this was his greatest.

A long answer to a brief question, Bob.
Best wishes and I hope to see you on Thursday.
Peter

A Song of Praise for John Gardener
Before I knew you John I sang your hymn
I went with my teenage Methodist
friends to The Alan Walker Methodist
Mission to Cape Town, at the Goodwood showgrounds
and like a mad Methodist I sang
Who will save our land and people
NKosi yam
What an important question then as now
and the answer: that resigned
St Patrick breastplate ending
that would express the depth
and bold statement of your faith

Christ enough to break all barriers;
Christ enough in peace, in strife;
Christ enough to build our nation;
Christ enough for death, for life.
Christ enough for one—for all!

To think you were Bishop Peter Storey’s Sunday school teacher!

You are Atticus, the giant lawyer
of To Kill a Mockingbird
the man who sees all sides of a problem
who is calm in building his case
which will rescue and never destroy or hurt
who believes in the dignity of every person
who knows every boy and family by name

There you were sitting in the Bishop’s staff room
and I a young school chaplain
After your great challenge of a career
as head of a school in the Eastern Cape
and the deep hurt of the death of Richard
thankful to Mallet and resigned to just being
a school master in a college with just one woman
as though you were not prince Hamlet,
nor was meant to be.
just an attendant lord
to some great Headmasters
There to recover, to heal, rebuild
with Beryl and your young family.
Who can recover from losing a child?
What parent, what siblings?
There was a simplicity and an austerity about you
I doubt whether the rugby crowd
ever invited you to Olympics
The classroom your ship
the ports of destiny the boys futures
anywhere in the world
There you gave of yourself,
the lessons, the oratory, the wit, the humour, the poetry
You helped me write minutes of House masters’ meetings
I the youngest, all in dinner suits, wine flowing
Say: after a long discussion, it was decided. What!
Write: There will be more discussion later.
They won’t remember

There you were
divided unhappy school
until the tide turned
and the College turned to you,
to become its becalmed head
the man of integrity,
the man for all seasons,

A Prospero performing your magic
to guide a school though a wilderness
of becoming in a country emerging
from its dark past

I left Bishops with my young family
for a school in Scotland, near Edinburgh.
On a day we visit family near Oxford
and with grandmother and children
we go punting on the river Isis/ Thames
and as we go a voice comes to us over the river
Bob, hey Bob, and I joke and say everyone knows me,
But it gets closer louder Bob, Hey Bob
and its James Gardener standing on the bank near a pub
and the Gardeners have found me
and memories flood back.

On our return to Cape Town
I become rector of St Paul’s Rondebosch
and I am honoured for John and Beryl join our Parish
I see them almost every Sunday.
Just the wonder of their presence.
I can keep an eye of them, they on me.
It’s a quiz night in the hall
at one table are two or three professors
and John and Beryl – they are answering all the questions.
Then a dramatic change in their fortunes
Ask question about pop music and 70s bands

The deep sadness of Beryl’s passing from us
Is held in the arms of parish and friends

John we loved it that you were on the radio
with John Orr reflecting on words and Language

John somewhere along the way
I know not when or where
but you and Sue find each other
It is like the marriage of Zeus and Hera
Two giants of the world of Education.
Extraordinary and ordinary loving people,
you breath new life into each other
with a renewed vision for education.
You, the young lovers become activists for new learning
and like Bonny and Clyde crash into Education Departments
all over the country sharing your wisdom and generosity

Now in my retirement I go to be with you at Good Shepherd Protea, here this aging couple have set up an Education Programme for the children of Protea, whom group areas had removed.
You delight in telling me John, and repeat it often
of my inclusion in your dream school team of staff and Chaplain.
You say it with a certain detachment, not over personal
You know of course, that you are in my All time Staff Team
And I never ask who are the others –
if you are here today whisper it to me.

The Anglican church has bestowed on you John
its highest honour
Admitting you, in your wheelchair to the Order of Simon of Cyrene.
Simon the one who carried the cross of the Christ just for a moment,
for one who in his field sees into the deep sadness of the human story,
Lives it. Holds it. Does not despair, carries it a little way,
but sees too into the great promise of the human spirit.
You John a servant of hope
transformed by Love
Your passing from us is a great loss
Sue and James and Andrew and will feel it
Live it deeply, often alone
You do not leave a gap in our lives John
You leave a door, unlocked
Which we can always come and open
and be bathed in the light that is you,
The light which comes from the one beyond you.

Thank you friend John,
Thank you Sue and James and Andrew.