Wednesday, March 15, 2006

May the Mind of Christ My Savior: Author's biographies

This beautiful hymn amazes me because it comes, lyrics and tune, out of the 20th century. It reads and sounds like it should come from the Puritan era. Kate Barclay Wilkinson, the author of "May the Mind of Christ My Savior", was born in 1859, in Wooland Bank, Timperley, Cheshire, England. A member of the Church of England, she was involved in a ministry to girls and young women in west London. It was cited in some of the biographies that I read that her husband was an engineer. It should be instructive to us all of how a woman of an obviously high social standing spent her talents for the Kingdom of God. The words to her hymn, as well as the example of her selfless life, should cause us too to seek to have the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5-8). Kate Barclay Wilkinson died on December 28, 1928, in Kensington, London, England. Arthur Cyril Barham-Gould, composed the hymn tune ST. LEONARDS. He was born in England in 1891 and educated at Ridley Hall at Cambridge. He was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1927. He served from that time at various churches until his death. He died on February 14, 1953, in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England. Both of these figures being servants of God in the Church of England; would that that church were filled with such servants even today.

No comments: