Almighty Father, Lord and King

This contemporary Trinitarian hymn comes from Great Ellingham near Attleborough in Norfolk, where Alan Clifford wrote the words in 1985. It is a markedly Reformed text, drawing richly on the doctrines of election, adoption, redemption and justification, as set out most clearly in the apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans, notably ch 8. It was written during the tercentenary of the revocation of the 1685 Treaty of Nantes, ‘in memory of the faith and fortitude of the Huguenots’, and first sung c1991.

John Wilson’s tune BEN JONSON’S CAROL first appeared in The Clarendon Hymn Book of 1936, when the composer was teaching at Charterhouse School in Godalming, Surrey. It is newly arranged for the present book, which is the first to match it to these words. The author had in mind the (GENEVAN) PSALM 68/36; see 105.

b Aldershot, Hants 1941. Fernhill County Secondary Sch, Farnborough. He served an Engineering apprenticeship in aircraft manufacturing before studying philosophy and theology at Univ Coll of N Wales, Bangor, and the Univ of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (BA, M Litt, PhD). Ordained in 1969, he served pastorates in Northampton, Gateshead, Great Ellingham (Norfolk) and Norwich, where he founded and currently ministers at the Norwich Reformed Church. He is the author of Atonement and Justification: English Evangelical Theology 1640–1790 (1990) and other historical and Reformed books, booklets and articles including work on Calvin and Cromwell and a tercentenary biography of Philip Doddridge (The Good Doctor, 2002). In 2006 his booklet on Christianity, Islam and British Politics sets some current religious debate in historical perspective; concerning Islam he is ‘utterly persuaded that radical authentic Christianity alone provides the best basis for scrutinising and assessing it.’ His first published hymn texts featured in Grace Hymns (1975) and Christian Hymns (1977), as well as a small collection Reformed Praise (2000, revised and enlarged 2004). 2 hymns are included in the 2004 CH, one of which was in its 1st edn. Nos.155, 245.