A consummate storyteller, a popular broadcast and print commentator, and prolific hymn writer, he authored numerous books on Bible interpretation and the spiritual life, many of which reflect Celtic Christianity.
Born in 1928, O'Driscoll spent his childhood and student years in the city of Cork in the south of Ireland.
[4] Following the footsteps of many before him, he sailed across the Atlantic in 1954, and briefly returned to Ireland the following year to marry, then settled permanently in Canada.
"When I was growing up, to be Protestant in the south of Ireland was to have your otherwise friendly neighbors or professional colleagues assume that you and they had different loyalties.
(2) "In July 1952, I was ordained in Dublin's Christ Church Cathedral, having entered by walking past its Norman remains.
O'Driscoll retired in 1993 and published sixteen books, in addition to contributing regular columns for church publications, leading pilgrimages, and preaching.
Canon Dr. Herbert O'Driscoll is many things: former parish priest and cathedral dean, internationally renowned conference and pilgrimage leader, hymnodist and storyteller, author of over fifty books.
When invited recently to give an Easter Day sermon on Zoom (at age 92) Herb accepted at once.
"[5] 1954 – 1957 Curate, Christ Church Cathedral, Ottawa, ON O'Driscoll left Cork in October 1954 aboard the RMS Franconia and immigrated to Canada.
"Strangely enough, I cannot recall the actual moment when I made one of the most significant decisions in my life, to relocate to Canada.
He must have been satisfied that I was not trailing any legal baggage behind me and that I was really the person I claimed to be, because some weeks later, I was asked to return to the citizenship office to swear allegiance to Her Majesty as Queen of Canada and to receive my citizen certificate, a valued piece of paper that has been carefully preserved over the years.
… One morning … Isabel appeared holding a large placard on a pole whose text read, ‘The dean should resign.'
… Some years later, when I had left for ministry elsewhere, other changes were conceived and brought to fruition, enhancing the traditional cathedral's life at the centre of the city.
"For more than half a century before I arrived, the college offered courses in preaching to clergy from all parts of the country.
The experience of attending the college alongside colleagues with similar challenges had the potential to be a part of this healing process.
1983 – 1993 Rector, Christ Church, Calgary AB O'Driscoll observed that one of the great silent transformations of the 20th century was the rise of the primacy of the individual in western society.
He would have meant a corporate entity formed of a common loyalty to such elements as the Bishop of the Diocese, the Prayer Book, Anglican tradition, Holy Scripture.
… The corollary of all this for me was that parish ministry called for an acknowledgement that the contemporary lives of Christ Church had become infinitely varied and deeply personal, and, perhaps sadly, distrustful of institution and tradition.
Above all I learned to ask a single overriding question in any conversation or interaction: ‘What is the human agenda in this situation?
"As those years went by, and the unrelenting tides of change continued to flow over church and society, I could see that the healing aspect of the college's work was becoming, if anything, even more significant and valuable.
Ironically, even tragically, the need for this healing role became more and more obvious at the same time as the church's sense of the importance of the homiletic function was lessening.
He has led 25 pilgrimages to Ireland, Iona, Canterbury and Brittany and many other speaking, preaching, and teaching engagements.
He has written extensively for diocesan publications, and his most recent book, "I Will Arise and Go Now: Reflections on the Meaning of Places & People" was published in 2021.
O'Driscoll's panoramic preaching unfolded and enlarged a text to form and inform his audience's knowledge and faith.
Panoramic preaching could take a wide variety of biblical characters and enlarge their story to encompass parallel comparisons to contemporary saints and sinners.
O'Driscoll's panoramic preaching would spend a Sunday or two within a church year season such as Advent or Lent, to unpack each of those Gospels' central themes, characters, sorrows, and hopes.
He imaginatively enters into familiar biblical stories and opens windows to fresh insight and meaning to refresh faith.
They are set to a variety of tunes, from familiar to newly composed, and were collected in a book titled Praise, My Soul.
It may be the sudden arrival of the overall idea or plan for a hymn, this time demanding that work begin immediately on constructing the stanzas.
(1979) God, When I Stand (1980) Songs of Sacred Places Here Is a Place of Loveliness (1985) Beneath the Branches Far Above (1981) Lord of the Western Prairie (1989) Songs of the Journey God Calls Us to Journey (1986) Come and Journey with a Saviour (1985) Let My People Seek Their Freedom (1971) Lord of Life Hear Us Sing (1966) When the Ship Is Standing Ready (1969) The Love of Jesus Calls Us (1989) The O'Driscoll Forum is a three-day event of public lectures on preaching, teaching, and the liturgical arts.