Dudley-Smith, Timothy
b Manchester 1926. Tonbridge School, Kent, Pembroke Coll Camb, and Ridley Hall Camb; ordained (CofE) 1950. After ministry at Northumberland Heath (nr Erith, Kent) and Bermondsey (SE London) he worked with the Evangelical Alliance, editing Crusade magazine before moving to the Church Pastoral Aid Society, becoming Gen Sec in 1965. Subsequently he became Archdeacon of Norwich (73–81), then suffragan Bp of Thetford until his retirement to Ford, nr Salisbury, in 1992. A writer of verse (including a mastery of the comic sort) from his youth, he is seen by Prof J R Watson (in The English Hymn, 1997) as igniting the late 20th cent ‘hymn explosion’ with his 1961 Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord, one of the hymns from that period in the widest use. He is the author of over 250 hymn texts in a similar number of hymnals worldwide, first collected in Lift Every Heart (1984), most recently in A House of Praise ( 2003). The latest of 4 smaller supplements, A Door for the Word, appeared in 2006, and 2 smaller booklets of his texts with accompanying music were published in 2001 and 2006: respectively Beneath a Travelling Star and A Calendar of Praise.
For many years the Bible commentator Derek Kidner was a mentor for most of TDS’s early drafts. While some were begun or completed at home, on trains or elsewhere, several were the fruit of family holidays on the Cornish coast, as a pre-breakfast employment (and delight) overlooking the beach near The Lizard. As reviewers have often observed, his texts are notable for their varied metres, disciplined rhyming, and biblical content; the theme of redemption through the cross and the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is a theme encountered consistently, naturally and with variety; so is the fact that ‘the Lord is risen’. Without plagiarising, the hymns deliberately draw on a wide range of earlier poets and other authors for suggested ideas, as the attached notes fully illustrate. 37 items are included in Sing Glory (1999); 18 are in the N American Worship and Rejoice (2001), 9 in the 2005 edn of A Panorama of Christian Hymnody and 33 in the new Anglo- Chinese Hymns of Universal Praise (new edn, 2006). His other books include A Flame of Love: A personal choice of Charles Wesley’s verse ( 1987), Praying with the English Hymn-writers (1989), and a 2 vol biography (the first) of John R W Stott (1999, 2001). He has served on editorial groups for Psalm Praise (1973) and Common Praise (2000), and has addressed and been honoured by both the N American and British Hymn Societies, respectively as Fellow and Hon Vice-President. In 2003 he was awarded the OBE ‘for services to hymnody’. Hymn festivals in Tunbridge Wells and Salisbury, together with an extended BBC ‘Sunday Half Hour’ on New Year’s Eve, marked his 80th birthday at the end of 2006, following the publication of a seasonallyarranged selection of 30 texts in A Calendar of Praise (with music, mostly traditional). In an opening address to the Hymn Soc’s Guildford conference in its 70th year (also 2006), TDS spoke of his (and our) ups and downs as ‘Snakes and Ladders’, concluding with that greatest of ‘ladders’ from Gen 28, referred to in Elizabeth’s Clephane’s text (699) which has meant everything to him: ‘so seems my Saviour’s cross to me/ a ladder up to heaven’. Nos.10, 20, 25, 26, 32, 34, 41, 56, 60, 63, 65, 69B, 72, 73, 91B, 115, 119H, 134, 141, 218, 238, 320, 327, 351, 360, 389, 402, 405, 410, 413, 436, 459, 466, 488, 497, 516, 531, 553, 558, 623, 628, 659, 688, 697, 746, 750, 784, 823, 924, 925, 939, 949, 951, 1001, 1002, 1005, 1006, 1009, 1019, 1020, 1025, 1042, 1077, 1136, 1166, 1174, 1214.
Hymns
- The Son - His Return in Glory
- The Son - His Ascension and Reign
- Psalms
- Isaiah 11:4
- Isaiah 49:7
- Exodus 15:18
- 72
- The Son
- The Son - His Suffering and Death
- 1 John 4:14
- Isaiah 53:11
- 1 Peter 2:24
- 410
- The Gospel - Repentance and Faith
- The Gospel
- Philippians 3:8-10
- Hebrews 13:21
- Ezekiel 36:26
- 697
- The Christian Life - Submission and Trust
- Psalms
- Psalms 25:1-22
- Psalms 31:4
- Psalms 86:4
- 25
- The Christian Life
- The Christian Life - Humbling and Restoration
- Joel 2:13
- Ephesians 3:14-15
- Ephesians 2:4
- 823
- The Son
- The Son - His Suffering and Death
- John 16:20-22
- Matthew 20:28
- Mark 10:45
- 413
- The Christian Life
- The Christian Life - Freedom in Christ
- Psalms 4:8
- Exodus 15:2
- Hebrews 13:20-21
- 746
- The Son
- The Son - His Birth and Childhood
- 1166
- Christ's Lordship Over All of Life
- Christ's Lordship Over All of Life - Governments and Nations
- Luke 2:14
- Matthew 6:10
- Luke 11:2
- 949
- Psalms
- Approaching God - Morning and Evening
- Psalms 141:2-3
- Numbers 6:24-26
- Exodus 27:20-21
- 134
- The Gospel
- The Gospel - New Birth and New Life
- Psalms 34:22
- John 3:5-8
- Ephesians 3:16-17
- 688
- The Son
- The Son - His Birth and Childhood
- Matthew 27:35
- Mark 10:32
- Psalms 83
- 351
- The Son
- The Son - His Life and Ministry
- Deuteronomy 6:16
- Hebrews 2:18
- Psalms 119:11
- 389
- The Son
- The Son - His Resurrection
- Romans 8:2
- Matthew 28:1-8
- Revelation 11:15
- 459
- Psalms
- Approaching God - Morning and Evening
- Psalms 134:2
- Hebrews 13:15
- Revelation 3:11
- 141
- The Son
- The Son - His Birth and Childhood
- 1006
- Christmas Praise
- CP10
- Psalms
- Christ's Lordship Over All of Life - The Earth and Harvest
- Psalms 6:5
- Genesis 1:6-10
- Genesis 8:22
- 65
- The Church
- The Christian Life
- The Christian Life - Commitment and Obedience
- 1019
- The Church
- The Christian Life
- The Christian Life - Perseverance
- 1020
- The Bible
- The Bible - Enjoyment and obedience
- Psalms 95:7
- Luke 24:32
- Ephesians 2:8-9
- 553
- Approaching God - Adoration and Thanksgiving
- 1 Samuel 23:14-16
- Psalms 84:1-2
- Hosea 10:12
- 63
- Approaching God
- Approaching God - Creator and Sustainer
- 1001
- The Father
- The Father - His Love
- 1002
- The Church
- The Church - Evangelism and Mission
- 1 Corinthians 2:8
- Acts 1:8
- Isaiah 9:7
- 623
- The Gospel - Repentance and Faith
- Psalms
- Exodus 34:7
- Psalms 32:7
- Psalms 34:22
- 32
- The Son
- The Son - His Ascension and Reign
- Revelation 19:15
- Revelation 21:8
- Daniel 7:9-22
- 497
- The Son
- The Son - His Ascension and Reign
- Revelation 4:8
- Revelation 5:12
- Isaiah 6:3
- 488
- Psalms
- Psalms 32:6
- Psalms 69:36
- Psalms 19:12-13
- 69B
- Approaching God
- Approaching God - Beginning and ending of the year
- Psalms 47:8
- Isaiah 2:4
- Ezekiel 48:35
- 238
- The Son
- The Son - His Birth and Childhood
- Romans 8:2
- 2 Corinthians 9:15
- Matthew 2:11
- 360
- The Father
- Psalms
- Psalms 121
- 1214
- The Gospel - Repentance and Faith
- Psalms
- Psalms 23:6
- Psalms 26:2
- Psalms 84:1-2
- 26
- Psalms
- The Christian Life - Spiritual Warfare
- Psalms 10:16
- Psalms 71:12
- Romans 3:14
- 10
- The Son
- The Son - His Resurrection
- Revelation 15:3
- Ephesians 1:11-12
- Luke 24:34
- 466
- The Son
- The Son - His Suffering and Death
- 1174
- The Holy Spirit
- The Holy Spirit - His Presence in the Church
- Ephesians 4:10
- Revelation 14:3
- Habakkuk 3:2
- 531
- Approaching God
- Approaching God - Morning and Evening
- Psalms 3:5
- Psalms 5:1-3
- Colossians 3:15-16
- 218
- Christ's Lordship Over All of Life
- Christ's Lordship Over All of Life - Governments and Nations
- Luke 24:32
- Revelation 15:3
- Jeremiah 10:7
- 951
- Christ's Lordship Over All of Life - Those in Need
- Psalms
- Job 19:13-19
- Psalms 29:9
- Psalms 41
- 41
- The Christian Life - Suffering and Trial
- Psalms
- The Christian Life - Spiritual Warfare
- 1 Samuel 21:12-15
- Psalms 57:1
- Psalms 102:9
- 56
- The Son
- The Son - His Name and Praise
- Micah 5:4
- Revelation 15:3
- Hebrews 1:6
- 320
- The Son
- The Son - His Suffering and Death
- Matthew 1:21
- John 1:29
- Revelation 5:9-12
- 436
- Approaching God - Adoration and Thanksgiving
- Psalms
- Psalms 6:5
- Psalms 88:10-12
- 1 John 5:21
- 115
- The Son
- The Son - His Life and Ministry
- Hebrews 13:8
- Matthew 8:23-27
- Mark 4:35-41
- 402
- The Christian Life
- The Christian Life - Assurance and Hope
- Revelation 15:3
- Hebrews 13:8
- Revelation 20:11-13
- 784
- The Church
- Approaching God
- Approaching God - Adoration and Thanksgiving
- 1077
- The Bible
- The Bible - Enjoyment and obedience
- Genesis 1:14-16
- Joshua 1:7-8
- Job 19:25
- 558
- Christ's Lordship Over All of Life
- Christ's Lordship Over All of Life - Christian Citizenship
- Deuteronomy 16:18-20
- Psalms 41:1
- Micah 6:8
- 924
- The Son
- The Son - His Name and Praise
- John 1:14
- Exodus 4:22
- Psalms 83
- 327
- Christ's Lordship Over All of Life
- Christ's Lordship Over All of Life - Christian Citizenship
- James 1:27
- Genesis 1:31
- Matthew 9:27-31
- 925
- The Son
- The Son - His Priesthood and Intercession
- The Son - His Ascension and Reign
- 1005
- Psalms
- Psalms 140:5
- Psalms 141:9
- Psalms 11:1
- 91B
- The Christian Life - Assurance and Hope
- Psalms
- Genesis 32:1-2
- Exodus 2:23-24
- Numbers 20:14-16
- 34
- The Church
- The Church - Evangelism and Mission
- Psalms 145:3
- Daniel 4:37
- Isaiah 12:4-5
- 628
- The Son
- The Son - His Life and Ministry
- John 1:14
- Isaiah 9:2
- 1 Peter 2:24
- 405
- Christ's Lordship Over All of Life
- Christ's Lordship over all of life - Christian Stewardship
- Approaching God
- 1009
- The Church - The Life of Prayer
- Psalms
- Psalms 53
- Psalms 20:7
- Psalms 37:4
- 20
- The Christian Life
- The Christian Life - Freedom in Christ
- Genesis 1:26-27
- Philemon 16
- 1 John 3:1
- 750
- The Christian Life
- Approaching God
- Approaching God - Creator and Sustainer
- Psalms 19:7-11
- 1042
- The Christian Life - Guidance
- Psalms
- Numbers 6:25
- 2 Samuel 22:31
- Psalms 119:129-144
- 119H
- The Son
- The Son - His Name and Praise
- The Son - His Suffering and Death
- Philippians 2:6-11
- 1136
- The Son
- The Son - His Name and Praise
- The Son - His Birth and Childhood
- 1025
- The Church
- The Church - The Lord's Supper
- John 15:1-8
- 1 John 1:3
- 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
- 659
- The Gospel - Invitation and Warning
- Psalms
- Psalms 51:10
- Matthew 5:8
- 2 Timothy 2:22
- 73
- The Son
- The Son - His Return in Glory
- Revelation 22:4-5
- Matthew 27:35
- Mark 15:24
- 516
- Christ's Lordship Over All of Life
- Christ's Lordship Over All of Life - Health and Healing
- Jeremiah 17:14
- Luke 17:11-19
- Acts 10:38
- 939
- Psalms
- 2 Samuel 8:13
- 1 Chronicles 18:12
- Psalms 60:4
- 60