O God beyond all praising

The story of this text is inseparable from that of the tune. Even those unfamiliar with the movement ‘Jupiter’ from Gustav Holst’s orchestral suite The Planets (1914–16) are likely to have encountered the tune THAXTED, based on its main section and named after the Essex village where the composer once lived. This is due to Cecil Spring-Rice’s I vow to thee, my country, written on 12 Jan 1918, a day before his farewell to Washington as Britain’s ambassador to the USA, and two days before his death. Used as a hymn in Songs of Praise and elsewhere, this is often chosen for grand occasions. Its meaning and appropriateness are also often questioned, and the media occasionally stir and enjoy the debate, as in summer 2004. In response, singer-songwriter Billy Bragg launched We vow to build a country, a well-crafted but wholly secular version, avoiding Spring-Rice’s celebration of ‘the love that asks no question’.

Others have been sufficiently moved by the music to offer texts which in Michael Perry’s words ‘would be more appropriate for Christian worship’. One such was Albert Bayly, who ministered in Thaxted in the 1960s and used the tune at least 3 times for hymns of his own. After a 1970s text had been rejected by the group planning HTC, this was a late entry written in 1981, the year before its publication. The author points to the use of contrast including the paradoxes of its opening lines, the personal touches at the heart of stz 2, and its hints of the BCP Communion service in both verses. ‘The line 1.4 (‘… without number’) can be read as an acknowledgement of Timothy Dudley-Smith’s help with my earliest attempts in Psalm Praise; and lines 2.3–4 (‘we’ll triumph …’) is an acknowledgement of God’s graciousness through the experience of acute disappointment and personal loss, and the remembered determination of the writer to overcome it’—MAP referring to 6-line stzs.

At the request of Richard Proulx and GIA Publications, Chicago, the author reluctantly added a ‘middle’ stz, ‘The flower of earthly splendour in time must surely die’, as published by GIA in its 1988 Concertato and in Michael Perry’s collected texts Singing to God, 1995. But in the notes in that book he says, ‘The tune is fairly “heavy��?, and my own preference would be for the hymn normally to be sung without this middle stanza’. Among other texts for this tune are Carl Daw’s For the splendour of creation, published in 1990; and We pledge to one another, a wedding hymn by Jill Jenkins (Baptist Praise and Worship 1991, 512).

b Beckenham, Kent 1942, d Tonbridge, Kent 1996. Dulwich Coll, Oak Hill and Ridley Hall Theological Colls, London and Southampton Univs (BD, MTh). Ordained (CofE) 1965; after curacies at St Helen’s, Lancs and Bitterne, Southampton, he became incumbent of Bitterne (1972), Eversley, Hants (1981), where Charles Kingsley was a predecessor, and finally Tonbridge from 1989. A contributor to Youth Praise 2 in 1969, he was then an editorial team member for Psalm Praise (1973) and Hymns for Today’s Church (1982, 1987), Canon of Rochester, member of General Synod, Chairman of Church Pastoral Aid Society and (from 1982) succeeding Jim Seddon as Hon Sec of Jubilate Hymns. Under Jubilate auspices he edited a stream of hymn, song, carol and Psalm and prayer books, in collaboration with David Iliff, David Peacock, Noël Tredinnick, Norman Warren and others. He edited The Dramatized Bible (1989), compiled the reference-handbook Preparing for Worship (1995), and wrote and spoke widely on many aspects of worship, in the UK and on visits to W Africa and N America. Over all, he possessed the gift of being able to handle vast amounts of work with a light touch and ready (but never unkind) humour. His 183 texts were collected in Singing to God: Hymns and Songs 1965–1995, a slightly Americanised volume, in the year before his early death from a brain tumour. His first published song (words and music) was ‘The Calypso Carol’ in 1963; see no.374, note. Including paraphrases, 40 of his texts are in HTC (1987 edn), 8 in Baptist Praise and Worship (1991), 18 in Sing Glory (1999), 8 in the N American Worship and Rejoice (2001), 15 in Carols for Today (2005) and 27 in Carol Praise (2006), not counting several versions attributed to ‘Word and Music’ which are predominantly his. For some 20 years he and Christopher Idle would exchange friendly mutual criticism of each other’s texts. MAP believed that ‘Our preparation for worship can only go so far. It is doomed if the Spirit of the Lord is not in it. On the other hand, God is sovereign; he can “take over” any kind of worship, provided that those who lead and those who participate are open to his grace’. He also consistently urged that ‘to be obscure is an indulgence we cannot allow ourselves’.
Michael is published by Praise! numbers 49, 75, 82, 88, 137, 128, 148, 153, 172, 187, 211, 213, 277, 323, 332, 373, 374, 382, 481, 624, 694, 872, 929, 947 and by Praise! online at numbers 1082, 1132.