Timothy Dudley-Smith

Timothy Dudley-Smith was an English Anglican bishop, poet, editor, and one of the leading hymn writers of the later twentieth century. Born in Manchester in 1926, he studied at Pembroke College and Ridley Hall, Cambridge, and was ordained deacon in 1950 and priest in 1951. His early ministry included parish work and service with the Church Pastoral Aid Society, and he edited the Christian magazine Crusade. He later served as Archdeacon of Norwich from 1973 to 1981 and Bishop of Thetford from 1981 to 1991.

Dudley-Smith wrote approximately five hundred hymn texts, many marked by close engagement with Scripture, disciplined meter, and language designed for congregational singing. Representative works include “Lord, for the Years,” “Christ Be My Leader,” “Name of All Majesty,” and “Tell Out, My Soul.” His collected hymns were eventually gathered in the multi-volume A House of Praise, published by Oxford University Press.

His contribution to hymnody was recognized internationally. He served as an honorary vice-president of the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland, became a Fellow of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada and of the Royal School of Church Music, received an OBE for services to hymnody in 2003, and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity by Durham University in 2009.