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On Sunday, June 7 we celebrate Trinity Sunday which is the beginning of the longest season of the church year. The season that binds everything else together, like endless lawns, meadows and forests, it is the long green of sunshine – praise of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If there is one hymn that spans the gamut of denominations, countries and peoples it is Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!
The hymn was written by Bishop Reginald Heber (1783 – 1826) a prolific writer of letters and hymns. He wrote the text of this hymn in the early 1800’s during his time as vicar in Hodnet, England, a period in which the author wrote more than a 100 hymns. It was first published posthumously in A Selection of Psalms and Hymns for the Parish Church of Banbury (Third Edition, 1826).
Heber served as a country parson for sixteen years followed by his position as Bishop of Calcutta until his death at the age of 42. The son of a rich landowner and cleric, he gained fame at the University of Oxford as a poet. After graduation he made an extended tour of Scandinavia, Russia and Central Europe. He was ordained in 1807 and took over his father’s parish in Shropshire, England. Heber was consecrated Bishop of Calcutta in October 1823. He worked tirelessly for three years to improve the spiritual and physical conditions of the people of India before his passing.
The text of the hymns speaks specifically of the Holy Trinity, the opening line Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty! references Isaiah 6:3 and Revelation 4:8 mirroring the opening line of the Sanctus which we sing in our Eucharistic service. This text is an example of Heber’s dutiful attempt to avoid excessive emotionalism by proclaiming the praise of God.
The tune for this hymn, Nicaea, was composed by John Bacchus Dykes for the first edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern in 1861. The tune name is a tribute to the First Council of Nicaea – held by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in 325 – which formalized the doctrine of the Trinity. Rarely separated from the text since then, it has been noted as one of the composer’s finest and bears resemblances with a 16th-century Lutheran chorale, Wake, awake for the night is flying, by Philipp Nicolai. Both of these hymns begin by outlining a major chord, which also symbolizes the Trinity.
Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee;
Holy, Holy, Holy! Merciful and Mighty!
God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity!
Holy, Holy, Holy! All the saints adore Thee,
Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
Cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee,
Which wert, and art, and evermore shalt be.
Holy, Holy, Holy! though the darkness hide Thee,
Though the eye of sinful man, thy glory may not see:
Only Thou art holy, there is none beside Thee,
Perfect in power in love, and purity.
Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All thy works shall praise thy name in earth, and sky, and sea;
Holy, Holy, Holy! merciful and mighty,
God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity! Reginald Heber.
Jerrad Fenske
Organist/Choirmaster
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