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Hymn of the Week: ‘The Church’s One Foundation’

Hymn of the Week: ‘The Church’s One Foundation’

Last updated on: August 27, 2017 at 12:07 am by Deacon Greg Kandra

Hymn of the Week: ‘The Church’s One Foundation’ 2017-08-27T00:07:18-04:00 Deacon Greg Kandra

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This is our entrance hymn this Sunday, and here’s a wonderful rendition from a large choir that appears to be in India.

About the hymn:

The Church’s One Foundation is a Christian hymn written in the 1860s by Samuel John Stone.

The song was written as a direct response to the schism within the Church of South Africa caused by John William Colenso, first Bishop of Natal, who denounced much of the Bible as fictitious. This topic is alluded to within the fourth verse of the text “Though with a scornful wonder men see her sore oppressed, by schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed.” When Bishop Colenso was deposed for his teachings, he appealed to the higher ecclesiastical authorities in England.

It was then that Samuel Stone became involved in the debate. It inspired him to write a set of hymns based on the Apostles’ Creed in 1866. He titled it, Lyra Fidelium; Twelve Hymns on the Twelve Articles of the Apostles’ Creed. “The Church’s One Foundation” is based on the ninth article, The holy Catholic Church; The Communion of Saints.

The song also served as inspiration for Rudyard Kipling’s 1896 poem, Hymn Before Action.

It is typically set to the tune “Aurelia” by Samuel Sebastian Wesley.

The words:

1 The Church’s one foundation

Is Jesus Christ her Lord,

She is His new creation

By water and the Word.

From heaven He came and sought her

To be His holy bride;

With His own blood He bought her

And for her life He died.

2 She is from every nation,

Yet one o’er all the earth;

Her charter of salvation,

One Lord, one faith, one birth;

One holy Name she blesses,

Partakes one Holy Food,

And to one Hope she presses,

With every grace endued.

3 The Church shall never perish!

Her dear Lord to defend,

To guide, sustain, and cherish,

Is with her to the end:

Though there be those who hate her,

And false sons in her pale,

Against or foe or traitor

She ever shall prevail.

4 Though with a scornful wonder

Men see her sore oppressed,

By schisms rent asunder,

By heresies distressed:

Yet saints their watch are keeping,

Their cry goes up, “How long?”

And soon the night of weeping

Shall be the morn of song!

5 ’Mid toil and tribulation,

And tumult of her war,

She waits the consummation

Of peace forevermore;

Till, with the vision glorious,

Her longing eyes are blest,

And the great Church victorious

Shall be the Church at rest.

6 Yet she on earth hath union

With God the Three in One,

And mystic sweet communion

With those whose rest is won,

With all her sons and daughters

Who, by the Master’s Hand

Led through the deathly waters,

Repose in Eden land.

7 O happy ones and holy!

Lord, give us grace that we

Like them, the meek and lowly,

On high may dwell with Thee:

There, past the border mountains,

Where in sweet vales the Bride

With Thee by living fountains

Forever shall abide! Amen

I’ve never heard anything beyond the second or third verse, but the others are beautiful, aren’t they?

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