It was in July 1968, while serving as pastor of the Congregational Church, Hockley, Essex, England, that Brian Wren (1936-; see Biographies) wrote this text. As were many of his hymns, it was written to fill a special need, this one as the conclusion of a series of sermons on the Communion service. “Its purpose,” he said, “was twofold: to start with an individualistic ‘I come with joy’ and end with a sense of being bound together with everybody else. This was a deliberate progression because I wanted to move away from what I think is an overemphasis on the individual in Communion hymns. The other purpose was to make suggestions about eucharistic [Communion] theology in a very simple way. It has lines like ‘His presence is always near,’ ‘is in such friendship better known.’ I understand the real presence of Christ in the eucharist to be in the gathering of people who are committed to each other” (The Hymn, January 1981).

The original had a more sexist wording in stanzas 2 and 3, “man’s true community of love” and “as Christ breaks bread for men to share.” In 1977 the editors of an American hymnal advised him to make the revised version here printed, which he admitted was “in every way an improvement.”

DOVE OF PEACE gets its name from the text associated with this anonymous early American melody. In six stanzas it tells of the search everywhere for the Dove of peace; at the end of the search He is found “by meek religion’s humble cot.” This version was printed in an early edition of the Original Sacred Harp, published by B. F. White in 1844. The facsimile found below has three staves of music containing tenor on the top, melody in the middle, and bass on the bottom.

The present arrangement is by Charles F. Frischmann. Born January 17, 1938, at Latrobe, Pennsylvania, he graduated summa cum laude in organ and church music from Westminster Choir College, Princeton, New Jersey. He earned the M.Mus. in choral conducting at the same school in 1964. His varied career has included: teaching theory at his alma mater for 15 years; director of music for Lutheran and Episcopal churches in New Jersey and Pennsylvania; music editor and arranger for J. S. Paluch Company, World Library Publications, the Polish National Catholic Church, Columbia Pictures Publications, and the Lutheran Church in America; and supervisor of the school music program in Princeton, New Jersey. His publications number more than 100 choral pieces, organ arrangements, and original compositions, distributed by five major music publishers. He has been much in demand as a festival leader and workshop speaker in the areas of organ playing, hymnology, and church music. Enjoying a hobby of American history and antiques, he has restored a pre-Revolutionary farmstead in Pennsylvania.

Care needs to be exercised in selecting a tempo for this 6/8 rhythm that the dignity of this joyful text without suggesting triviality. Consider this as a possible way to use this hymn in the Communion service: stanza 1 at the very beginning; stanzas 2, 3, and 4 during the passing of the emblems; and stanza 5 as a response to the benediction at the close.

📖 Reference: Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal by Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White. Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1988.