Lord of the cross of shame

If the ‘hymn-explosion’ of the late 20th c is generally measured from the early 1960s, this is one (to improve the metaphor) of its firstfruits. Michael Saward wrote it, the 4th of his texts in chronological order, for the April 1963 birthday celebrations of the Young People’s Fellowship at Edgware Parish Church where he was curate (see also 656, note). ‘It is one of my favourite texts’, he writes; ‘not, perhaps, verbally profound but spiritually touching the deepest levels of my faith.’ It was published in the first Youth Praise of 1966, in the 1971 Family Worship, then in several further collections including HTC and Sing Glory. In 1981 a change was made in the final line, from ‘united with the citizens of heaven.’

The hymn was written for, and first sung to, the Vaughan Williams tune DOWN AMPNEY (518). But it was launched in print and has been generally sung since to CROSS OF SHAME, composed for the words by Michael Baughen while YP (which he edited) was in preparation. As if unknowingly matching the author’s enthusiasm, the composer says ‘I do love this! It was in the early creativity of the Youth Praise group and I suppose I was inspired by the words and a tune came to me.’ This also was 1963 or early ’64, while he was Candidates Secretary of the Church Pastoral Aid Society. SG (1999) introduces another possibility in William Harris’s under-used tune (for Come down, O love divine), NORTH PETHERTON, from the 1950 A&M. The metre of 6 6 11 D is not unique but is found only very rarely.

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*.