A Door for the Word: Thirty-six new hymns 2002-2005: Paperback

ISBN 10: 0193355876 ISBN 13: 9780193355873

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 2006

Synopsis

Bringing together thirty-six hymns, this work is a survey of the author's work collected in A House of Praise (2003). It also includes hymn texts that are complemented by informative notes and an extensive series of indexes.

About this title

Review:

There are three reasons for spending time with this book. First, as with any hymnal or good collection of hymns, it makes excellent devotional material, especially when reading the text is combined with reading the biblical passage that inspired it. Dudley-Smith's turns of phrase can open up a passage, a doctrine, an experience of the spirit for reflection and greater understanding . . . Second, many of us are better arrangers than composers of music for our choirs. For those, he names many less familiar tunes that can serve as raw materials. And third, those who are gifted as hymn writers can find here many clues to the methods of this master of the craft. (Roger G. Miller, The Fellowship of United Methodists in Music and Worship Arts, USA)

And how good it is that a convinced Evangelical is still writing real hymns! Not for him the false (or forced) rhymes, crammed syllables and tired phrases of so many worship songs. Dudley-Smith's lyrics still retain the poetic virtues of shape, structure, and scansion . . . And you know you are in the hands of a skilled practitioner when you can take his words on your lips without embarrassment. Timothy Dudley-Smith instinctively understands this. His hymns deserve to last, and many surely will . . . He is a gift to the church. (Michael Sadgrove, Dean of Durham, Praxis News of Worship Summer 07)

About the Author:

Educated at Cambridge University, Timothy Dudley-Smith was ordained in 1950 as assistant curate of St Paulās Church, Northumberland Heath. From 1953 he was head of the Cambridge University Mission in Bermondsey, London, and in the 1960s served as secretary of the Church Pastoral Aid Society. In 1973 he became Archdeacon of Norwich and in 1981 Bishop of Thetford; he retired in 1991. He is a Fellow of the Hymn Society of the United States and Canada, and in 2003 was appointed an honorary vice-president of the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland. In the same year he was awarded an OBE for services to hymnody.

About this edition

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0193355876
• ISBN 13: 9780193355873
• Binding: Sheet music
• Number of pages: 76