The Hidden

About

Each year a number of Auckland church choirs combine their forces as the Many Choirs Festival, presenting two church services over consecutive weekends. The Hidden was commissioned for performance in the 2008 festival, which had as its theme ‘celebrate our land’.

The text is by noted New Zealand author Joy Cowley (b.1936). On her website www.joycowley.com she says:

I am still writing full-time. These days the creative hours are divided between adult writing - articles, spiritual reflection material, stories and novels - and books for children. I still write graded reading material for schools but I also do picture books and novels, trade titles which children can own. Most weeks, the bulk of writing time is spent answering letters from young friends all over the world, a task that I consider to be more play than work.

The text suggests that everything is founded on God’s presence, and throughout the text many facets of the New Zealand environment are described. As with the biblical psalms, this text calls us to recognise that God is made manifest is all things.