Call me rigidly traditional, but I am instinctively suspicious of hymns written after the turn of the century.  (Don’t ask which century.)  But every so often, a recent hymn breaks through my prejudice and touches my soul.  This morning’s offertory hymn at Christ Church Cathedral, Whitehorse, was one of those.  “O Christ, The Great Foundation” was written by Timothy T'ingfang Lew (1891-1947), but I don’t know who translated it into English.

O Christ, the great foundation on which your people stand
to preach your true salvation in every age and land:
Pour out your Holy Spirit to make us strong and pure,
to keep the faith unbroken as long as worlds endure.

Baptized in one confession, one church in all the earth,
we bear our Lord's impression, the sign of second birth:
One holy people gathered in love beyond our own,
by grace we were invited, by grace we make You known.

Where tyrants' hold is tightened, where strong devour the weak,
where innocents are frightened, the righteous fear to speak,
there let your church awaking attack the powers of sin
and, all their ramparts breaking, with you the victory win.

This is the moment glorious when he who once was dead
shall lead his church victorious, their champion and their head.
The Lord of all creation his heavenly kingdom brings,
the final consummation, the glory of all things.

The tune of this hymn is Aurelia, composed by Samuel Sebastian Wesley, grandson of Charles, in 1864.  Used for many hymns over the years, Aurelia is now best-known as the tune for “The Church’s One Foundation”.