Christ triumphant, ever reigning

Youth Praise has had much to answer for. When its 2nd volume was published in 1969, the best-selling 1966 book inevitably became YP1. It was the product of youthful Anglican clergymen breaking free from some past shackles while remaining strongly evangelical in theology and practice. The ‘charismatic movement’ had not yet arrived, and the YP books provided a lively replacement for the CSSM/Scripture Union ‘choruses’ which were often the only alternative to the church’s hymnals. Youth work was one of the evangelical strengths, often through Pathfinders and YCF (later CYFA), and for informal or midweek groups the Youth Praise books proved ideal— for a time. Clearly, several songs were cheerfully lightweight and ephemeral, though others gleaned from many sources brought both doctrinal and social awareness into what the ‘fellows and girls’ (as the book called them) were singing. What more traditional editors were slow to realise was the arrival of a number of texts which were worthy to count as hymns, to outlast the YP lifespan, and to be sung by adults as well as teenagers.

So no.10 in the 1966 book was this text which soon came to be Michael Saward’s best-known. He wrote it in April 1964 (‘latest date—most likely’, MS) at home in Elmer Gardens, Edgware, NW London, for the 28th birthday of the church’s youth group, towards the end of his time as curate there. The YPF happily sang it to ANGEL VOICES until Michael Baughen launched his tune CHRIST TRIUMPHANT in the book he master-minded. It has since appeared in over 200 hymnals in Britain and abroad, more than half of these since 2000. The apparent triumphalism of its opening must be interpreted by what follows; it is the ‘suffering servant’ who gains and brings the triumph—though some have found this hard to accept or sing; as then, so now.

After enjoying considerable exposure for the first 18 years of its life, the hymn’s 2nd and main career began with the arrival of John Barnard’s tailor-made tune GUITING POWER. This was named from the Gloucs village near Cheltenham, where the composer taught from 1971 to 1974, and published in 1982 in HTC. Though printed there as the 2nd tune, it soon outstripped its original YP one and is now often the only music provided, as in Common Praise (the 2000 edn of A&M). Lionel Dakers, former Director of the RSCM and the doyen of traditionalists, called it ‘a fine text enriched by John Barnard’s magnificent tune … which fits Michael Saward’s words like a glove and complements them in no small way. This is surely one of the great hymns of our time.’ The composition which began around the church hall piano has now been used in many cathedrals (including the memorial service for Archbishop Donald Coggan), on royal occasions, ‘Prom Praise’ events at the Royal Albert Hall, and countless broadcasts, even in the background of TV’s ‘soap’ series ‘East Enders’. Free Churches and American editors have been slower to recognise its value, but it does find a place in the 2004 CH. A foretaste of the ‘refrain’ lines is found in Thos Kelly’s ‘Meeting in the Saviour’s name’, where stz 3 concludes, ‘His the triumph and the crown,/ his the glory and renown.’

b Blackheath, SE London 1932; d Switzerland 2015. Eltham Coll; Bristol Univ and Tyndale Hall Bristol (BA); ordained 1956. He ministered in Croydon, Edgware and Liverpool before becoming the C of E’s Radio and TV Officer 1967–72. From 1972 to 1991 he served W London incumbencies in Fulham and Ealing; during the latter he barely survived a vicious attack on himself and his family at the vicarage, by intruders high on drugs. He then became Canon Treasurer of St Paul’s Cathedral from 1991, providing one of the two evangelical voices heard throughout the decade from the cathedral pulpit; some sermons were published in 1997 as These are the Facts (a title from hymn 629). He retired to Wapping, E London, in 2000. He was a Church Commissioner and General Synod member; a prolific writer, speaker and broadcaster on the local and national church, doctrine, mission, liturgy, sexual ethics, baptism and hymnody. His book Signed, Sealed, Delivered: finding the key to the Bible (2004) explores the concept of ‘covenant’ as that key.

From early 1962 onwards he wrote over 100 hymn texts, his first ones including ‘Christ triumphant’ were published in Youth Praise (1966, 1969), followed by several in Psalm Praise (1973) and Hymns for Today’s Church (1982) of which he was words editor. He was a founding Director and later Chairman of Jubilate Hymns, with a leading role in other Jubilate collections including Sing Glory (1999) which features 23 of his hymns. 75 of them were published in 2006, with an introduction and brief notes, in Christ Triumphant and other hymns. In 2009 he initiated and edited Come Celebrate, a unique collection of 291 lesser-known hymn-texts by 20 living authors, 14 of whom are represented in Praise! He said of himself, ‘My style is deliberately punchy and I love to use strong, graphic illustration’. Nos.119D, 162, 166, 249, 291, 446, 525, 592, 629, 635, 656, 849, 865*.