Timothy Dudley-Smith: A life in three scenes

RT REVD TIMOTHY DUDLEY-SMITH OBE: 1926-2024

Timothy Dudley-Smith will be remembered best for his rich contribution to hymnody. He is widely-regarded as the greatest modern hymnwriter of the 20th and early 21st centuries. At his 90th birthday celebration, Pam Rhodes, presenter of BBC Songs of Praise, described his popularity as springing out of ‘his understanding of the human condition’.

Bishop Timothy’s first hymn, ‘Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord’ was only ever intended as a poem. Leafing through a review copy of the New English Bible (NT) one morning, he reached for a pencil to attempt to turn the Magnificat into poetry. It took, as he later reflected, about 45 minutes. The hymn would appear in hundreds of hymn collections around the world. His ‘Lord, for the Years’ was sung at the Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II and in many Millennium events.

Three scenes of ministry

Dudley-Smith’s ministry divides neatly into three areas: (i) as a curate, Archdeacon, then bishop (he was never an incumbent); (ii) in parachurch ministry with the Cambridge University Mission, then editor of Crusade magazine, and finally with the Church Pastoral Aid Society (CPAS); and (iii) as a hymn-writer. In addition, he was an author, and John Stott’s authorized biographer.

Timothy’s early education had been in a small school with his father as schoolmaster. The boys were introduced to the classics, to the discipline of good syntax, and to the appreciation of poetry. He was thus equipped with an instinct to seek out the best words, and exactitude, in one of the world’s richest languages.

Billy Graham’s 1954 Harringay Crusade, scheduled for four weeks and lasting four months, left a deep impact on the nation. The Billy Graham brand was huge. Timothy, who had completed a curacy in Erith, southeast London, and now ran Cambridge University Mission’s work among Bermondsey youth, was invited to co-edit a new magazine, Crusade, to follow Graham’s visit.

How could Crusade be best-used to teach new Christians, and help to strengthen the church? While still relatively inexperienced, Timothy was clear-sighted in his desire for Christians to grow in their faith. He used Crusade as a means of teaching, and drew on many more-experienced friends in his circle to write for it.

In 1959 he married June Arlette MacDonald, a child adoption officer who had played at Junior Wimbledon. This was the same year he was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Church Pastoral Aid Society (CPAS) with responsibility for developing publications.

The CPAS was set up by Lord Shaftesbury to help alleviate poverty, and to support clergy. One of its first beneficiaries had been Patrick Brontë, father of the writers. Dudley-Smith’s friend Michael Baughen joined the staff in the early 1960s. He and Richard Bewes came up with the idea of Youth Praise. Trade publishers turned them down, but Timothy recognised the need, and CPAS took the financial risk. Youth Praise captured the moment, with Cliff Richard at its launch in Westminster Central Hall. By 1973, with a sequel, sales exceeded a million copies, and Psalm Praise was launched.

Let’s pause lest we miss something. Older readers may recall a sense of spiritual renewal in schools and among students in the latter 1960s and early 1970s. Youth Praise was a special gift from God in 1966. This was the same year that Good News for Modern Man appeared (the New Testament of what became the Good News Bible). There are studies to be made of that spiritual awakening, and, under God, the provision of highly able men in leadership: Timothy Dudley-Smith, Michael Baughen and Richard Bewes; Tom Houston, who drove the wide popularity of the Good News Bible; Dick Lucas in the City; and Michael Green, as a student evangelist and writer — not to forget those in the celtic nations. Billy Graham’s visits and John Stott’s multi-dimensional ministry provided a backdrop which we can’t explore here.

Most of Timothy’s hymns were written while on holiday on the Lizard Peninsula. He would send each summer’s work to Derek Kidner, Warden of Tyndale House, Cambridge, who brought not only theological acumen but training as a concert pianist. After reworking them, the hymns would go to other friends with two questions: Is the flow and development of the hymn clear? Does it have the ’sing-ability’ factor? TDS wrote some 450 hymns, which were included in hundreds of collections, in English and in translation.

Timothy loved the disciplines of the poetic form, and studied in particular the writings of C S Lewis, Housman and Hopkins. As he didn’t consider himself gifted musically, he had never thought of hymnwriting. At his 90th birthday celebration, his friend Dick Lucas told the story of the day they both came out of a chapel service at Ridley Hall, Cambridge. Lucas had been sitting near him and congratulated him on singing the closing hymn in four different keys!

In 1973, Dudley-Smith was appointed Archdeacon of Norwich, under Bishop Maurice Wood, becoming Bishop of Thetford in 1981. During these years he held several other roles, including membership of the General Synod, and its committee of chairmen, chair of the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC) and President of the Evangelical Alliance as offices were established in Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

In 1991, approaching retirement, Bishop Timothy received an unexpected invitation from John Stott, a friend since student days, to write his authorized biography. This was published in two volumes, (John Stott, IVP, 1999 and 2001) to wide acclaim as both scholarly and readable.

Timothy joins an elite group who have published serious new material into their tenth decade. A Functional Art (OUP, 2017) surveys the main influences on his life and hymnwriting bringing fascinating anecdotes from behind the scenes. We glimpse the man himself, who preached before the highest in the land while always retaining a modesty; a gentle and quiet spirit (1 Pet 3:4). We thank God for him.

Timothy Dudley-Smith leaves three children and four grandchildren. His son James is Rector of Yeovil.