Wise and confident hymn choosing

Andy Thomas

Andy Thomas is author of Resounding Body: Building Christlike Church Communities Through Music (Sacristy Press, 2020), an associate tutor at RSCM and a freelance church musician working mainly with Anglican and Methodist churches in Bedfordshire. Andy has served as Director of Music for a variety of churches and community choirs in Sheffield and London. His (fabulous, challenging) experience at St John's, Waterloo inspired his book, where he built a choir from scratch despite being assured it could not be done. Andy is passionate about the power of music to grow and invigorate church communities, and is particularly keen to support those with limited musical resources.

Tim Ruffer

Tim Ruffer has been Head of Publishing at the RSCM since 2002, in which role he acts as Music Consultant to Hymns Ancient & Modern, sustaining a long-held tradition going back to Sir Sydney Nicholson's editorship of the hymnbook. He was a member of the editorial committee for 'Sing Praise' and chaired the editorial committee for 'Ancient & Modern–Hymns & Songs for refreshing worship', published in 2013. He is also co-ordinator of the highly-regarded 'Sunday by Sunday' magazine. Tim is Joint Director of Music at St Mary's Church, Fordingbridge and a deputy lay-vicar at Salisbury Cathedral.