As Man and Woman We Were Made: History, Meaning, and Tune
"As man and woman we were made"
- Written
- 1973
- Category
- Hymn
- Tune
- Standard Tune
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Story
As Man and Woman We Were Made is Brian Wren’s 1973 Christian marriage hymn, commonly sung to the traditional English tune SUSSEX CAROL in Ralph Vaughan Williams’s arrangement. Its stanzas connect creation, Cana, resurrection hope, and communal celebration while acknowledging both joy and strife in shared life.
Overview
As Man and Woman We Were Made is Brian Wren’s 1973 hymn for Christian marriage. In six-line stanzas it moves from humanity’s creation for relationship to Jesus’ sign at Cana, the hope disclosed in Christ’s death and resurrection, and a final summons to feast, peace, friendship, and enduring love. The result is more than a romantic wedding song: it places a couple’s promises within God’s creative, redemptive, and communal work.
The hymn exists in more than one authorized form. The original opening emphasizes two people becoming one and names family relationships; a later revision describes persons as bearing God’s likeness, each unique yet called to shared life. Some hymnals also print “As man or woman” in the first line. These variants should not be silently combined, because their wording and theological emphases differ.
The customary tune is SUSSEX CAROL, a traditional English melody collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams and published in his 1919 arrangement. The text is copyrighted and requires permission or appropriate licensing for reproduction; the lyrics field is therefore intentionally blank.
Historical Background
Brian Wren wrote As Man and Woman We Were Made in 1973, during a period when English-language hymn writers were producing new congregational texts for experiences and pastoral occasions that older hymnals treated only sparingly. The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology records its publication in Mainly Hymns in 1980 and its later revision for Faith Looking Forward in 1983. That sequence matters: the hymn circulated in more than one authorized textual form, and later hymnal editors did not always select the same version.
The original first stanza begins with the familiar title line and praises the love that takes shape in marriage and family relationships. Wren’s revision retains the title line but recasts the stanza around the image of God, personal uniqueness, shared life, and love enduring joy, sadness, calm, and strife. The United Methodist Hymnal of 1989 makes another conspicuous editorial choice, printing “As man or woman” as the first line while retaining As Man and Woman We Were Made as the title. These are documented textual variants, not grounds for constructing a composite text. Any congregation preparing a service should use the wording authorized in its hymnal or license.
The text’s larger architecture remains recognizably Christian and festive. Creation establishes the dignity and relational calling of human life. The Cana stanza presents Jesus as the giver who renews ordinary loving and turns a simple occasion into a sign of joy. The resurrection stanza refuses to promise an untroubled marriage; instead, it locates hope beyond grief and limited sight. A concluding feast expands the focus from the couple to a community sharing peace, laughter, friendship, and praise.
SUSSEX CAROL brings a history independent of Wren’s words. Ralph Vaughan Williams heard Harriet Verrall sing On Christmas Night at Monk’s Gate, near Horsham, Sussex, in 1904. He used the material in Fantasia on Christmas Carols in 1912 and published an arrangement in Eight Traditional English Carols in 1919. Stainer & Bell identifies that publication as the first appearance of the present arrangement; the melody was later included as SUSSEX CAROL in The Oxford Book of Carols in 1928. Vaughan Williams is therefore properly described as collector, arranger, and harmonizer of a traditional melody, not its composer.
The pairing proved durable because Wren’s 8.8.8.8.8.8 meter fits the tune and because the melody’s buoyant associations reinforce the text’s imagery of joy and feasting. Hymnal records show the hymn in Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, and ecumenical collections. The Church of England lists it among wedding hymns, and the Church of Scotland’s commentary commends both its accessible tune and words whose meaning can be revisited later in a marriage. Its reception thus rests on a useful conjunction: a modern, pastorally candid marriage text and a traditional melody already familiar to many worshipers.
Biblical Foundations
Genesis 1:27 supplies the revised opening stanza’s central claim: human beings bear God’s image. Genesis 2:24 and Jesus’ citation of that verse in Matthew 19:4-6 provide the traditional biblical language of two lives joined as one. The hymn handles these texts poetically rather than as a complete doctrine of marriage, emphasizing created dignity, relation, and shared vocation.
John 2:1-11 is the most explicit narrative allusion. At Cana, Jesus is present within a wedding celebration and changes water into wine. Wren uses the sign to portray Christ as renewing human love and making an ordinary moment radiant with grace. The image also explains why celebration, hospitality, and a shared table belong to the hymn’s theology rather than serving as decorative wedding imagery.
The third stanza draws together Easter and eschatological hope. Its movement from Christ’s death to life again is the basis for confidence amid sorrow. The language of believing without full sight resonates with 1 Corinthians 13:12-13, where partial vision gives way to fullness and faith, hope, and love remain. The promise that love waits to wipe tears away closely echoes Revelation 21:4. These passages keep the hymn from idealizing married life: joy is real, but Christian hope also addresses grief, uncertainty, and endurance.
Verse Explanation
The first stanza grounds human love in creation. In its original form it praises God for two people becoming one and for love embodied across family relationships. In Wren’s revision it emphasizes the image of God, each person’s uniqueness, and a call to shared life through both joy and strife. Leaders should explain the form actually printed rather than treating the versions as interchangeable.
The second stanza turns to Jesus’ earthly life and the wedding at Cana. The water-to-wine sign becomes a picture of Christ’s power to renew love, deepen celebration, and make ordinary moments shine with grace.
The third stanza moves through death and resurrection. It acknowledges obscured skies and tears while locating hope in Christ’s victory and in a future that believers do not yet see clearly.
The final stanza widens the circle. Tables, friends, laughter, shared joy, and peace show that marriage belongs within community. The hymn ends not with the couple alone but with a gathered people praising the love that endures.
Theological Reflection
The hymn presents marriage within the whole gospel story: creation, incarnation, sign, cross, resurrection, hope, and communal celebration. Love is neither self-generated sentiment nor a private possession. It is received within God’s life-giving work, renewed through Christ, practiced through changing circumstances, and sustained by hope when sight is incomplete.
Its treatment of unity should be read alongside its affirmation of personal uniqueness. Shared life does not erase either person. The revised first stanza especially holds together divine likeness, distinct personhood, and a vocation to life in common. That balance can support a Christian account of marriage as mutual, faithful partnership rather than domination or absorption.
The final feast also prevents the wedding from collapsing into a private event. Friends and worshiping community are participants in peace, joy, and praise. Christian marriage is publicly promised and communally supported. Pastoral use should acknowledge that the hymn names both joy and strife; it celebrates love honestly by placing present promises within Christ’s resurrection and God’s promised future, not by pretending that affection alone removes suffering.
Church Impact
The hymn has secured a durable place in English-language Christian wedding repertory. Hymnal documentation places it in Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, and ecumenical books, usually with SUSSEX CAROL. Its inclusion as number 642 in The United Methodist Hymnal and number 700 in Hymns of Glory, Songs of Praise gives it visibility in two substantial denominational traditions; other appearances include The Covenant Hymnal, With One Voice, The Book of Praise, Together in Song, and Worship and Rejoice.
Its practical appeal is easy to understand. The tune is accessible and often already known through Christmas worship, while the text speaks directly to a wedding without reducing marriage to romance. Creation, Cana, resurrection, struggle, hope, friendship, and feasting give ministers and couples several points of connection with Scripture and the marriage rite. Official Church of England wedding guidance includes it among suggested hymns, and Church of Scotland commentary highlights its usefulness both on the wedding day and for later reflection within marriage.
The hymn has also participated in wider editorial conversations about gendered language. Different hymnals preserve the original wording, adopt Wren’s revised first stanza, or alter the opening to “As man or woman.” Its impact therefore includes not only frequent liturgical use but a visible example of how modern hymn texts change through authorial revision and denominational editing.
Musical Notes
SUSSEX CAROL is a traditional English tune in 8.8.8.8.8.8, normally sung in F major or with a modal coloring. Ralph Vaughan Williams collected the melody from Harriet Verrall in Sussex in 1904 and arranged it for his 1919 Eight Traditional English Carols. Hymnals commonly credit him as arranger and harmonizer; describing him simply as the composer obscures the tune’s oral-traditional source.
The melody is bright and forward-moving, with repeated-note figures and arching phrases that suit Wren’s language of praise, wine, dawn, laughter, and feasting. Its Christmas association may help occasional worshipers recognize it, though leaders should rehearse the text under the tune so that singers do not lapse into the familiar carol words.
A moderate, buoyant tempo works better than either a rushed carol pace or a heavy ceremonial one. Shape each six-line stanza in larger phrases, allowing the final couplet to sound like a culmination. Organ or piano should articulate the rhythmic lift without overpowering the congregation. At a wedding, a clear introduction and confident leadership are more valuable than elaborate accompaniment, especially when many guests are unfamiliar with congregational singing.
Application
- Treat marriage as a shared vocation in which two distinct persons practice mutual honor, patience, truthfulness, and care.
- Let wedding worship name both celebration and the endurance required through sadness, conflict, uncertainty, and change.
- Connect the couple’s promises with the congregation’s responsibility to offer friendship, prayer, practical help, and peacemaking.
- Use the Cana imagery to notice grace within ordinary acts of hospitality, daily work, and shared meals.
- When selecting the hymn, identify the authorized textual version in the chosen hymnal and secure permission or report its use through the appropriate licensing service.
Discussion Questions
- How does the revised first stanza hold together the image of God, personal uniqueness, and shared life?
- What does the Cana story contribute to a Christian understanding of ordinary love and celebration?
- Why does the hymn move from wedding joy to death, resurrection, tears, and hope?
- How can a congregation support a marriage after the wedding service has ended?
- What is gained or lost in the different authorized versions of the first stanza?
Teaching Tips
- Show singers the title, author, tune, and copyright line in the hymnal before discussing the text; this prevents confusion between Wren’s words, the traditional melody, and Vaughan Williams’s arrangement.
- Compare the authorized first stanza in two hymnals without blending them. Ask how the original and revised versions place different emphasis on family, divine likeness, uniqueness, and unity.
- Read Genesis 1:27, John 2:1-11, 1 Corinthians 13:12-13, and Revelation 21:4, then trace the hymn’s movement from creation through Cana and resurrection to future hope.
- Teach SUSSEX CAROL independently of its Christmas words, using a firm introduction and one full stanza before the wedding rehearsal.
- Frame the hymn as congregational participation in the marriage rite: the gathered community is not an audience but a body called to pray, rejoice, make peace, and support the couple.
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