Hymn of the Week: July 25, 2024
O God in Whom All Life Begins
Glory to God: 308
TEXT: Carl P. Daw
MUSIC: English melody; arr. Arthur S. Sullivan
O God in whom all life begins,
who births the seed to fruit,
bestow your blessing on our lives;
here let your love find root.
Bring forth in us the Spirit’s gifts
of patience, joy, and peace;
deliver us from numbing fear,
and grant our faith increase.
Unite in mutual ministry
our minds and hands and hearts
that we may have the grace to seek
the power your peace imparts.
So let our varied gifts combine
to glorify your name
that in all things by word and deed
we may your love proclaim.
Through tears and laughter, grief and joy,
enlarge our trust and care;
so bind us in community
that we may risk and dare.
Be with us when we gather here
to worship, sing, and pray,
then send us forth in power and faith
to live the words we say.
One of my all-time favorite, more recent, hymn writers
Carl P. Daw was born in 1944, the first of four children. At the time, his parents were living in Louisville where his father was in his last year of seminary, preparing to be a Baptist minister.
During World War II, his father was a Navy Chaplain and became pastor of a small church in Newport, Tennessee. After that pastorate, he went back to graduate school and then received a job at a church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where Carl spent most of his boyhood before going away to college. Grateful for his musical training at various schools he studied cello and piano.
Carl went to Rice University and studied English literature. He then went on to graduate school at the University of Virginia where he earned his M.A. and PhD in English literature, with a dissertation on five sermons by the great writer, Jonathon Swift. Feeling called to the priesthood as an Episcopal priest he attended the School of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee. Daw became a consultant for the new Episcopal hymnal of the early 80s. He eventually served as a rector at several Episcopal churches throughout the East Coast.
When asked to summarize his theological viewpoint, Carl Daw had this to say:
Probably the most important, central theme from which my hymns radiate is the mystery of God’s grace and our human incapacity to anticipate or understand it. (A primary expression of this tension is “Praise God whose providential awkwardness,” whose title-before I adopted the practice of identifying my texts by their first lines – was simply, “Grace.”) because I understand the experiences of the Christian community, corporate worship (especially as expressed in the Sacraments), the reading of Scripture, and daily living as being potential ways of encounter with God, these are the contexts through which I usually approach this recurring concern.
When asked how he sees hymn functioning in worship he responded with the following:
With allowances for differences in particular traditions, I see worship as having four broad movements: gathering, celebrating (which includes elements of praising, meditating, and proclaiming), identifying with God and each other, and dismissing/sending forth… I believe that hymnody is vital in creating and maintaining such a cohesive shape in worship…
Our tune is a tune we use at Christmastime (more in English churches). You’ll notice that the tune is accredited to Arthur Sullivan. Yes, he is THAT Arthur Sullivan of Gilbert and Sullivan fame.
Today’s biographical information and comments from Dr. Daw come from Paul Westermeyer’s brilliant book: With Tongues of Fire Profiles in 20th Century Hymn Writing. Concordia Publishing House 1995.
