For All the Saints

This hymn has great memories for me. I first learned it while a student at Bob Jones University. We went to a little Anglican Church in Greenville, South Carolina and learned some of the great Anglican hymns. Once I moved to England we sang it every All Saints Day and often for other saints’ celebrations. The words are by the Victorian Anglican bishop W. Walsham How and the tune–Sine Nomine by Vaughan Williams. This version is sung by the choir of Kings’ College Cambridge–where I was chaplain for a few years.

Take time to listen to the whole thing. It is beautifully done, and it is a ‘story hymn’. It tells a story through all eight verses. We sang all eight at  our vigil for All Saints at Our Lady of the Rosary parish last night. There were quite a few moist eyes–a very moving service.