Although placed in the SDAH section Community in Christ, this hymn was written when the author realized, in 1965, that there was an acute shortage of ordination hymns. In 1966 the Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, California, asked the Hymn Society of America to conduct a hymn-writing contest to celebrate the school’s one hundredth anniversary. Of the 107 new texts submitted, this one was chosen and published in Ten New Hymns on the Ministry.

     Ernest Alexander Payne was born February 19, 1902, in Hackney, London, England. After he spent four years as minister of Bugbrooke Baptist Church, his career embraced a variety of posts: secretary of the young people’s department; editorial secretary for the Baptist Missionary Society; moderator of the Free Church Federal Council; general secretary of the Baptist Union; vice president of the Baptist World Alliance; and president of the World Council of Churches. Among his published books is The Free Church Tradition in the Life of England.

     Charles F. Brown composed SEVENTH AND JAMES for this text especially for the Baptist Hymnal, 1975, and named it after the Seventh and James Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, where he was director of the college choir.

     Brown was born June 28, 1942, at Nixon, Texas. After graduation from Baylor and Old Dominion universities he taught theory, arranging, and trumpet at the U.S. Navy School of Music. For a number of years he served as minister of music in Texas and Virginia churches, then he became director of music publications for Word Music, Inc., of Waco, Texas. More than 50 of his choral compositions have been published, including the successful “Reach Out and Touch.”