Hymn Of The Week: August 17, 2020

Hymn of the Week: 

In Christ There is No East or West

# 317 in Glory to God Hymnal (ca. 1908)

Text: John Oxenham (1851-1941)
Music: African American Spiritual

In Christ there is no East or West

In Christ there is no East or West,
In Him no South or North,
But one great Fellowship of Love
Throughout the whole wide earth.

In Him shall true hearts everywhere
Their high communion find.
His service is the golden cord
Close-binding all mankind.

Join hands then, Brothers of the Faith,
Whatever your race may be!--
Who serves my Father as a son
Is surely kin to me.

In Christ now meet both East and West,
In Him meet South and North,
All Christly souls are one in Him,
Throughout the whole wide earth.

This week’s hymn is attributed to a businessman turned poet whose name is William Arthur Dunkerly with John Oxenham as a pseudonym. He was a very successful businessman who turned to writing as an outlet or hobby from his work all over the United States, Canada, and Europe as a businessman, He soon found he loved writing more than the business world and turned to writing full time. His first collection of poems was entitled, “Bees and Amber”, from which this text comes. He submitted his book to a publisher who turned him down. Not giving up, he published it himself and it became wildly popular with 300,000 copies. He went on to write many novels, short stories, and collections of poetry.

There are officially two tunes to this Hymn text. The one you hear today uses the title McKee. This was a tune based on a spiritual by Harry T. Burleigh who was well known for starting the well-known choral group, The Fisk Singers. Enjoy today’s jazz version of this beautiful hymn arranged by Michael Hassell.