Bishop Timothy Dudley-Smith (1926-2024): The supreme hymnwriter of his generation

Evangelical hymnwriter Bishop Timothy Dudley-Smith, rose to pre-eminence by the sheer quality of his writing, says fellow hymnodist, Christopher Idle. This “gospel-hearted bishop” was keen not to be outdone by more liberal writers

On any given Sunday, we are quite likely to be asked to sing one of the 400 hymns written by Bishop Timothy Dudley-Smith (TDS), who died peacefully at Cambridge on Monday, aged 97. Again, the chances are that it will be ‘Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord’.

We might also be singing ‘Lord for the years your love has kept and guided’ (music by Timothy’s great friend Michael Baughen). Or an enterprising pastor or music leader might squeeze one of TDS’s Christmas hymns (he wrote a new one every Christmas for over 50 years) into our carol services. Timothy’s ‘Holy Child’ and ‘The darkness turns to dawn’ are surely worthy to stand alongside the Victorian classics – though King’s College Cambridge may take another hundred years to discover them.