I come with joy, a child of God

Brian Wren’s hymn has not only become one of his best-loved and mostused texts, acknowledged as possibly his own finest, but is also seen (leaving behind the language of ‘hymn-explosions’) as one of the choicest fruits of the late 20th-c harvest of writing. It was written in July 1968 as I come with joy to meet my Lord, for Hockley Congregational Church in Essex which later became Hockley and Hawkwell URC. Like many hymns by this author it has undergone considerable revision at his hand, notably in 1977 and 1993. Prof J R Watson is among those who regret the change in the opening line but agree that other alterations (including those to its concluding ones) are an enhancement. The central theme remains unchanged; stz 1.2 may remind us of Lyte’s ‘ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven’ (103B) or James Edmeston’s ‘thus provided, pardoned, guided’ (from Lead us, heavenly Father, lead us), and we are then moved on from individual devotion to joining others (stz 2) and then in Christ to serve together; from ‘I come’ to ‘we’ll go’. The original stz 4 began ‘And thus with joy we’ll meet our Lord …’ (taking up the initial phrase which has now been altered), and its replacement introduces the Spirit of Christ. The final verse formerly ended ‘… we’ll go our different ways,/ and as his people in his world/ we’ll live and speak his praise’.

In 1968 the hymn concluded a sermon-series about Communion. The author says, ‘The hymn tries to use simple words to suggest important theological themes … v4 relates Christ’s “real presence

b Romford, Essex 1936. Romford Liberty Grammar Sch; New Coll Oxford (BA Mod Langs 1960); Mansfield Coll Oxford 1960–62, followed by research on OT prophets (PhD 1968). He was ordained in 1965 to the Congregational (now URC) ministry, beginning at Hockley, Essex until 1970. He then worked with the Churches’ Committee on World Development, and 1976–83 for the Oxford-based Third World First. He has also worked with Christian Aid, Oxfam and War on Want, and in 1991 moved permanently to the USA. His hymnwriting began in 1962, and along with other books he has published several hymn-collections from Mainly Hymns (1980) onwards and including the autobiographical Piece Together Praise (1996), some texts revised many times as language and his own perception of it has moved on. In 1996 he wrote What Language Shall I Borrow?. He served on the committee for New Church Praise (1975); 13 of his items are in the 1991 URC book Rejoice and Sing, 10 in the Methodist Hymns and Psalms (1993). Formerly based in Decatur, Georgia, USA, he is represented in many current N American books. He was commended by Erik Routley in 1979 for ‘the felicitous expression of profound theological ideas’ and by Paul A Richardson (2005) for ‘the relation of a realistic view of daily life to an optimistic theology’. He has also taught and written on the vital connection between hymns and preaching. In 2009, living in NE Pennsylvania, he produced a further collection of texts 2004-08, Love’s Open Door. Nos.596, 650.