God the Father, name we treasure

Authors:
Themes:
Scriptures:
  • 1 Samuel 1:20-28
  • 1 Samuel 2:26
  • Psalms 78:1-7
  • Joel 1:3
  • Matthew 28:19
  • Acts 11:26
  • Acts 2:1-4
  • Acts 26:28
  • Ephesians 3:14-15
  • Ephesians 6:1-4
  • 2 Timothy 1:5-6
  • 1 Peter 4:10
  • 1 Peter 4:16
  • 1 John 3:18
Book Number:
  • 937

God the father, name we treasure,
each new generation draws
from the past that you have given
for the future that is yours:
may these children, in your keeping,
love your ways, obey your laws.

2. Christ, the name that Christians carry;
Christ, who from the Father came,
calling us to share your sonship,
for these children grace we claim:
may they be your true disciples,
yours in deed as well as name.

3. Holy Spirit, from the Father
on the friends of Jesus poured:
may our children share those graces
promised to them in the word,
and their gifts find rich fulfilment,
dedicated to our Lord.

© Author
Basil Bridge

Christ's Lordship Over All of Life - Families and Children

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Tune

The story behind the hymn

Basil Bridge wrote this hymn in 1975, he says, ‘for the baptism of our first grandchild, at his parents’ request. His name, Mark Christopher Hanson, suggested the Trinitarian pattern; v1 “Father

A look at the author

Bridge, Basil Ernest

b Norwich, Norfolk 1927. City of Norwich School and Cheshunt Coll, Cambridge (BA/MA). In 1951 he was ordained to the pastorate at Knowle (Warwicks), then Abbot’s Rd Congregational (now URC) Leicester from 1955, Stamford and Bourne (Lincs) and Bedford; he retired to Norwich. For many years, together with his wife Muriel, he has been active in the Hymn Society. His earlier hymn texts were collected in The Son of God proclaim, and other hymns (1986), which took its title from his 1962 prizewinning communion hymn, and his first. 30 texts and 8 tunes are in print in several Free Church and Jubilate collections; among them, Jesus, Lord, we pray, written in 1977 for his younger daughter’s wedding in the following January. The 2005 edn of A Panorama of Christian Hymnody carries a different pair of texts from those in Praise!, including This is the truth we hold, (for which he composed the tune HARROLD) while Hymns and Psalms (1983) also has 2, Rejoice and Sing (1991) 3, and NewStart (for the Millennium, 1999) has 5 in a total of 71. His self-selected share in Come Celebrate: contemporary hymns>/i> (2009) is 10; this does not include The prophet had a vision, set to his own tune MICAH in 1975,which expresses the biblical (and late-20th-c) longing for a global peace. Nos.29, 937.