Christ is all the world's good news

In 1975 Scripture Union was looking for new evangelistic hymns. Its editors were aware that items like Just as I am (704) were being over-used, partly imitating the Billy Graham ‘crusade appeal’ pattern, and that many older hymns had been overtaken by ways in which language was changing. This was a little before the work of Jubilate Hymns and others had rescued some of them from disuse by adapting the most archaic or otherwise unintelligible expressions. Helen Smart (later Hazlewood) was then working with SU, and asked Christopher Idle (her vicar at Poplar, E London) if he could submit any for consideration for a new book. Although the first draft was written ‘in some haste’, the book Songs of Worship did not appear until 1980. Small changes since then include 1.2, where the word ‘commands’ was an attempt to avoid any suggestion of a detached choice between equal claims. But ‘choice’ also occurs in 666 and 847 among Reformed texts. Stz 3 reflects Jesus’ requirement that we must count the cost (Luke 14:28ff), contrasted with the often-quoted teaching of Ignatius Loyola that we should not.

The words were written for John Stainer’s CHARITY which takes its name from its original textual partner, C Wordsworth’s Gracious Spirit, Holy Ghost (Holy Spirit, gracious Guest), a part-paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13 which describes love, or ‘charity’ in the AV. The tune was published in A&M’s 1868 Appendix to its 1st edn; sometimes the last 5 notes are unnecessarily lengthened or slowed, in a habit arising from the composer’s note at that point, ‘rallentando’. As the Companion to Rejoice and Sing says, ‘this line must be taken in strict tempo to avoid a syrupy slide into disorder.’

b Bromley, Kent 1938. Eltham Coll, St Peter’s Coll Oxford (BA, English), Clifton Theol Coll Bristol; ordained in 1965 to a Barrow-in-Furness curacy. He spent 30 years in CofE parish ministry, some in rural Suffolk, mainly in inner London (Peckham, Poplar and Limehouse). Author of over 300 hymn texts, mainly Scripture based, collected in Light upon the River (1998) and Walking by the River (2008), Trees along the River (2018), and now appearing in some 300 books and other publications; see also the dedication of EP1 (p3) to his late wife Marjorie. He served on 5 editorial groups from Psalm Praise (1973) to Praise!; his writing includes ‘Grove’ booklets Hymns in Today’s Language (1982) and Real Hymns, Real Hymn Books (2000), and The Word we preach, the words we sing (Reform, 1998). He edited the quarterly News of Hymnody for 10 years, and briefly the Bulletin of the Hymn Society, on whose committee he served at various times between 1984 and 2006; and addressed British and American Hymn Socs. Until 1996 he often exchanged draft texts with Michael Perry (qv) for mutual criticism and encouragement. From 1995 he was engaged in educational work and writing from home in Peckham, SE London, until retirement in 2003; following his return to Bromley after a gap of 40 years, he has attended Holy Trinity Ch Bromley Common and Hayes Lane Baptist Ch. Owing much to the Proclamation Trust, he also belongs to the Anglican societies Crosslinks and Reform, together with CND and the Christian pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation. A former governor of 4 primary schools, he has also written songs for school assemblies set to familiar tunes, and (in 2004) Grandpa’s Amazing Poems and Awful Pictures. His bungalow is smoke-free, alcohol-free, car-free, gun-free and TV-free. Nos.13, 18, 21, 23A, 24B, 27B, 28, 31, 35, 36, 37, 48, 50, 68, 78, 79, 80, 81, 83, 85, 89, 92, 95, 102, 108, 109, 114, 118, 119A, 121A, 125, 128, 131, 145B, 157, 176, 177, 193*, 313*, 333, 339, 388, 392, 420, 428, 450, 451, 463, 478, 506, 514, 537, 548, 551, 572, 594, 597, 620, 621, 622, 636, 668, 669, 693, 747, 763, 819, 914, 917, 920, 945, 954, 956, 968, 976, 1003, 1012, 1084, 1098, 1138, 1151, 1158, 1159, 1178, 1179, 1181, 1201, 1203, 1204, 1205, 1209, 1210, 1211, 1212, 1221, 1227, 1236, 1237, 1244, 1247, 5017, 5018, 5019, 5020.