William Watkins Reid Jr.

William Watkins Reid Jr. (1923–2007) was an American Methodist minister and hymn writer whose work often joined Christian worship with questions of peace, social responsibility, and public life. He studied at Oberlin College, receiving degrees in 1945 and 1947, and later graduated from Yale Divinity School. During the Second World War he served in the United States Army Medical Corps, earned three battle stars, and spent eight months as a prisoner of war in Germany. Those experiences formed part of the background from which he later wrote about war, reconciliation, and Christian responsibility.

Reid served congregations in North Dakota and Pennsylvania and spent much of his ministry within the Methodist tradition that became The United Methodist Church. His appointments included rural and urban churches in the former Wyoming Conference, and in 1978 he became superintendent of the Wilkes-Barre District. He also participated in civic life, including service as a councilman and county commissioner, and held positions on church and hymnological boards.

Hymn writing was an important part of Reid’s ministry. He served on the Executive Committee of the Hymn Society and contributed texts to several Hymn Society collections, including Fourteen New Rural Hymns, Twelve New World Order Hymns, and other mid-twentieth-century projects. His hymns were published across denominational lines and characteristically address Christian discipleship in relation to society, peace, mission, and the life of the church. “O God of Every Nation,” written in 1958 for a Hymn Society competition connected with the National Council of Churches’ Fifth World Order Study Conference, became his best-known hymn.