Father and God, from whom the world derives
- Psalms 129:8
- Jeremiah 31:1
- Matthew 6:9
- Matthew 7:9-11
- Luke 11:11-13
- Luke 11:2
- Ephesians 3:14-21
- Ephesians 4:12-13
- Colossians 1:4-12
- James 2:5
- 1 Peter 1:3-4
- 594
Father and God, from whom the world derives
all fatherhood in every family,
we bow our knees for power to fill our lives,
your mighty grace, your Spirit’s energy.
2. For Christ to make his home in every heart,
to plant and build us in his love’s pure strength;
to help his church to grasp in every part
love’s boundless height and depth and breadth and length.
3. With all God’s fulness let us now be filled
and know the splendour of his love unknown;
expect the gifts a father gives his child
and share the trophies that our king has won.
4. To God be praise! His power in us can do
far more than we can ask or understand,
through Jesus Christ, who by his church makes new
for every age the glories God has planned.
© Author / Jubilate Hymns
Christopher Idle
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Tunes
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Beacon Hill Metre: - 10 10 10 10
Composer: - White, Peter Gilbert
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Woodlands Metre: - 10 10 10 10
Composer: - Greatorex, Walter
The story behind the hymn
One of the first new texts to be accepted for HTC, this paraphrase of Ephesians 3:14–21 was published there having been written by Christopher Idle in Poplar, E London, in 1974. At that time there seemed few hymnic approaches to this great NT prayer, which had been read at the author’s wedding to Marjorie in 1963. The words were, as often, adjusted after their assessment by the editorial group.
The words were written for the tune WOODLANDS (616, named as an alternative), which was not then in such demand as it later became. Their unwise initial pairing with ELLERS was later corrected. Peter G White’s more recent BEACON HILL (also at 923) was composed in Leicester in 1984/85 by request for Timothy Dudley-Smith’s Had he not loved us and set to those words in the 1986 Carols for Today. Without the introductory bars it appeared in the 2nd edn of HTC a year later, and is first set to this text here. Beacon Hill is a high point in Leics.
A look at the author
Idle, Christopher Martin
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.