Now lives the Lamb of God

One of Thomas Cranmer’s original contributions to his first Book of Common Prayer of 1549 was the chain of Scriptures known as ‘The Easter Anthems’, appointed to be sung or said on Easter Day instead of the regular Psalm 95 or ‘Venite’. The Bible texts, slightly adapted from the AV for the 1662 book, are 1 Corinthians 5:7–8; Romans 6:9–11; and 1 Corinthians 15:20–22. David Mowbray wrote this metrical paraphrase for Easter 1981 at Broxbourne, Herts, where he was rector (formerly vicar), at a time when little else in this form was available and the set text would be either chanted or said by the congregation. He wrote that ‘… our people have forgotten how to chant, so I had to write a hymn! Verse 4 strikes out in a slightly different direction’. The hymn was first published in HTC in the year after it was written; several other collections have included it since then. The ‘second Man’ of stz 3 is more correct than J H Newman’s or Charles Wesley’s (359) ‘second Adam’.

CHRISTCHURCH, CROFT’S 136TH, and GOPSAL (for which it was written and to which it was first sung) have all been used or suggested for this text; in Praise! the first and third of these are found respectively at 164 and 495. For notes on the tune MARLBOROUGH GATE see 163.

b Wallington, Surrey 1938. Dulwich Coll; Fitzwilliam House, Cambridge (MA); Clifton Theological Coll, Bristol (BD). Ordained (CofE) 1963, he served parishes in Northampton (as curate), Watford (lecturer), Broxbourne (Herts, as incumbent), Hertford and (from 1991) Darley Abbey, Derby, until retirement to Lincoln in 2004. His hymnwriting began in 1978 while on a month’s residential clergy conference at Windsor Castle, where 2 of his texts were immediately sung in St George’s Chapel. This was followed by ‘a great burst of writing’ for some 18 months. His own first words-only collections for parish and school were Kingdom Come, Kingdom Everlasting and Kingdom Within (1978–84), mainly recommending standard hymn tunes, and some 50 of these texts are now formally published, from Partners in Praise (1979) onwards. Several are in Jubilate books (6 in Come Rejoice!, 1989, 15 in Sing Glory, 1999, 5 in Carol Praise, 2006), and publications from Stainer and Bell; Come to us, creative Spirit (1979) remains his most popular, while First of the week and finest day is a rare 20thc text on a once much-loved theme (see also J Ellerton, note). Come Celebrate: contemporary hymns (2009) includes his share of 15 texts. ‘The usual flashpoint for writing is the combination of an idea plus a tune’—DM. He was a member of the words group for Sing Glory, and is probably the most outstanding contemporary hymnwriter not yet (by 2011) to have a collected volume of his texts. Nos.119B, 469, 584, 921, 1050, 1226