British worship veteran GRAHAM KENDRICK talked to Clem Jackson about his new Christmas album and his plans for the future

Graham: Yes well, once or twice we quote a little bit from carols, for instance in "Holy Night". But on the title track I very deliberately borrowed lots of lines from carols.

Clem: On previous Christmas albums there have been some really standout tracks, songs like "Thorns In The Straw", "Can You Believe It?", "Tonight" and "Heaven Invites You To A Party" spring to mind. What's your favourite track on the album and why?

Graham: I think my personal favourite from the point of view of a performer is "The New World Has Come" which has got a wonderful orchestral arrangement. It's kind of more or less an acoustic guitar and orchestra and it's a song where I allowed my poetic sensitivities to let loose in terms of the mystery of the incarnation. But it always takes time to hear songs.

When you write you are so inside the songs, then you're recording them and into the detail, and so it takes quite a while to stand back and say 'OK, now which one do I really like the best.' But I think the final track "Rejoice, God Is Now With Us" has got a strength to it that people will pick up on. It's the sort of song you can imagine doing with a choir - it's a really 'big' sound.

In terms of what might be used most, more like a Christmas carol, I think possibly "A Prince Is Born" because I think it is very accessible, with a very catchy chorus.

Clem: One of the songs that stood out for me, from a lyrical point of view, was "Look What The Lord Has Done" where you have cleverly intertwined the stories of both Elizabeth and Mary. How did the idea for that come about?

Graham: Well I started by re-reading the Gospel accounts, which is a good place to start, and I was just struck by what was going on in these characters' lives and how people's personal stories, hopes, longings and disappointments are woven into this story which is actually of cosmic proportions. In the case of Elizabeth, you've got a woman who is now well past child-bearing age, who never did have a child, and has carried that disappointment all her life yet still hopes against hope. And this extraordinary thing starts to unfold. I wanted to try and capture some of her joy at what God has done because I think it also a microcosm of what the Gospel is - "Look what the Lord has done for me" - it comes down to an individual saying "this is amazing God has actually noticed me in my situation and done a miracle."

Clem: It's interesting to take aspects of the story before the 'holy night', as you have done I think in "What's To Be Done About Mary" which I think is an interesting angle.

Graham: Yes, it's the same thing as trying to look at the story from unusual angles. It's the villagers really, and Joseph, and their reaction, particularly from within that very strict culture. But I also think it's one of the big things going on in the story. So much is hanging on people's decisions, so much on ordinary people making choices. And of course one of the biggest choices there was Joseph's - what's he going to do?

Clem: Two 'jump out' lines for me, from the Joseph perspective, were "What am I gonna do about the dream I had last night?" and also "When he grows up whose face will I see looking back at me?" What this guy must have gone through!

Graham: Yes, there is an incredible vulnerability about what God did in the incarnation, actually put himself in the hands of somebody who had a choice really, in the extreme, to say to the village elders 'I think this girl should be stoned to death' and the baby within her womb would die too. So there are some awesome decisions hanging on an ordinary man - and whether it's law or grace.

One of the little pointers to Joseph is when it says 'Joseph was a righteous man'; the Hebrew word which that is translated from denotes somebody who was unusually passionate about the law, the Torah - somebody who really wanted to live his life by the Law of Moses. You've got someone who is very committed but at the same time there is also a great deal of grace in his heart and in his decision - because he chose to believe the dream and give her the benefit of the doubt. I'm sure that at the time he didn't know what hung on that decision.

Clem: You're obviously very busy with touring and events so how much chance do you get to lead worship in your home church?

Graham: Well, we moved house a couple of years ago so I'm not in a worship leading situation - we're quite new to the church we're in and the church is undergoing lots of changes and so on. I see my main role at the moment as itinerant and when you do that you can't really sustain organising local worship leading.

This article originally appeared in the December 2007 issue of Christian Marketplace and is used with permission.