The author writes: “Through having to arrange ordinations in the diocese of London, I became aware that suitable hymns were few. This caused me to write the hymn in question at a time when ordinations were, in the Church of England, confined to men. (The first line was, “Go forth, O Priest, with Christ.”) As a result, I rewrote the hymn for the New English Hymnal, but in the end decided not to include it, since I had found what I thought was a better one for the purpose.”

George Boorne Timms was born October 4, 1910, in Derby, England, and educated at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, and the Collage of the Resurrection at Mirfield, West Yorkshire. Ordained in Coventry Cathedral, 1925 he served in the following positions: curate in Coventry and Reading; sacrist and succentor of Southwark Cathedral, 1949-1952; vicar of St. Mary’s Primrose Hill, London (this is the church where the English Hymnal, 1906, was born, when Percy Dearmer – see SDAH 259 – was a minister there), 1952-1965; rural dean of Hampstead, 1959-1965; prebendary of St. Paul’s Cathedral, 1964-1971; director of ordination training and examining chaplain to the bishop of London.1965-1971; and for 10 years prior to his retirement in 1981, the archdeacon of Hackney, London. He has been chairman of the English Hymnal Company since 1969. Publications include: The Liturgical Seasons, 1965; editor, English Praise: A Supplement to the English Hymnal, 1975; coauthor, The Cloud of Witnesses, 1982; and editor, The New English Hymnal, 1986.

     For comments on DARWALL’S 148TH and John Darwall, see SDAH 221, “Rejoice, the Lord is King.”