Today’s hymn on this Lord’s Day is written by Timothy Dudley-Smith (b. 1926). He was educated at Pembroke College and Ridley Hall, Cambridge, and has served the Church of England since his ordination in 1950. He has occupied a number of church positions, including parish priest in the diocese of Southwark (1953-1962), archdeacon of Norwich (1973-1981), and bishop of Thetford, Norfolk, from 1981 until his retirement in 1992. He also edited a Christian magazine, Crusade, which was founded after Billy Graham’s 1955 London crusade. Many of his several hundred hymn texts have been collected in Lift Every Heart: Collected Hymns 1961-1983 (1984), Songs of Deliverance: Thirty-six New Hymns (1988), and A Voice of Singing (1993). committee that published Psalm Praise (1973)1. You’ll notice it has the same time to the hymn “I Cannot Tell”, also known as the Londondery Air tune. Enjoy!
Lord of the church we pray for our renewing
Christ over all our undivided aim
Fire of the Spirit burn for our enduing
Wind of the Spirit fan the living flame
We turn to Christ amid our fear and failing
The will that lacks the courage to be free
The weary labours all but unavailing
To bring us nearer what a church should be
Lord of the church we seek a Father’s blessing
A true repentance and a faith restored
A swift obedience and a new possessing
Filled with the Holy Spirit of the Lord
We turn to Christ from all our restless striving
Unnumbered voices with a single prayer-
The living water for our souls’ reviving
In Christ to live and love and serve and care
Lord of the church we long for our uniting
True to one calling by one vision stirred
One cross proclaiming and one creed reciting
One in the truth of Jesus and His word
So lead us on till toil and trouble ended
One church triumphant one new song shall sing
To praise His glory risen and ascended
Christ over all the everlasting King
1/hymnary.org/person/DudleySmith_T
Hymn of the Day 