Now Let Us from This Table Rise: Meaning, History, and Theology
"Now let us from this table rise"
- Written
- 1964
- Category
- Hymn
- Tune
- Standard Tune
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- Published
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Story
Now Let Us from This Table Rise is Fred Kaan’s 1964 post-Communion hymn linking the Lord’s Supper with Christian service, mutual care, and mission. The United Methodist Hymnal pairs the copyrighted text with the eighteenth-century French tune DEUS TUORUM MILITUM.
Overview
Now Let Us from This Table Rise is a post-Communion hymn that deliberately refuses to let the Lord’s Supper end at the church door. Fred Kaan turns the movement away from the table into a movement toward Christian discipleship: worshipers who have shared the sacrament are sent back into ordinary life to embody the grace, mutual care, and self-giving love they have celebrated.
The hymn’s spiritual movement is therefore from reception to responsibility. Communion renews the gathered community, but renewal is tested in what follows—in service, solidarity, courage, and faithful action. Kaan’s emphasis fits a recurring concern in his hymnody: worship should form people for peace, justice, reconciliation, and concrete care rather than remain detached from the needs of the world.
This makes the hymn especially appropriate after Holy Communion, at the close of worship, or in services focused on vocation and mission. It can help a congregation understand dismissal not as the end of worship but as the point at which sacramental fellowship becomes public discipleship.
Historical Background
Fred Kaan wrote Now Let Us from This Table Rise in 1964 while serving Pilgrim Church in Plymouth, England. The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology identifies it as his first hymn and explains that it arose from a practical liturgical need: Kaan wanted a suitable hymn to sing after Communion. The text was first used at Pilgrim Church that year. Its original setting within that congregation is significant because Kaan’s early hymn writing developed out of pastoral experimentation—writing words for occasions or themes that he felt existing hymnals did not adequately address.
The hymn was published in Kaan’s Pilgrim Praise in 1968, where it carried the simple heading “After the communion.” That collection gathered fifty texts from his first years of hymn writing and helped bring his work to a wider audience. The hymn was quickly taken up by other British collections: the Canterbury Dictionary notes its appearance in the Methodist supplement Hymns and Songs and in 100 Hymns for Today, both published in 1969. In the latter book it was given the interpretive title “The sacrament of care,” a phrase that captures the hymn’s central connection between Eucharistic participation and responsibility for others.
Kaan later explained that the hymn’s final prayer originally addressed “Father God,” while he subsequently preferred “Companion God,” drawing attention to the Latin roots associated with sharing bread. Modern hymnals do not all reproduce the same revision, so the exact wording depends on the represented edition. Because the present record does not supply a full authorized textual edition and the words remain copyrighted, HymnInfo does not reproduce the complete text here.
The hymn has been sung to many long-meter tunes. The contributor combination in the uploaded record corresponds to the setting used in The United Methodist Hymnal of 1989, no. 634: DEUS TUORUM MILITUM. The melody comes from the Grenoble Antiphoner of 1753 and therefore predates Kaan’s text by more than two centuries. The United Methodist instance credits Ralph Vaughan Williams with a 1906 harmonization and Basil Harwood with a 1908 adaptation. Neither man is the original composer of the eighteenth-century melody, so neither is retained as a structured HymnInfo composer. Other hymnals pair Kaan’s text with SOLOTHURN, NIAGARA, KILLIBEGS, TALLIS’ CANON, WAREHAM, HURSLEY, and other tunes.
The hymn’s transmission across Anglican, Methodist, Reformed, Roman Catholic, Adventist, and other hymnals documents broad ecumenical circulation. Hymnary currently indexes forty-five hymnals containing the text. That spread does not by itself prove how frequently it is sung, but it does show that editors in many traditions have found Kaan’s post-Communion theology useful for themes of Eucharist, discipleship, sending, service, and social responsibility.
The text is not public domain. Hymnary identifies the words as © 1968 Hope Publishing Company in the United States, while other territorial administrations also identify continuing rights. Kaan died in 2009; under Philippine law, literary works are generally protected for the author’s life plus fifty years. Accordingly, as of 2026 the represented text remains protected in both selected screening jurisdictions. This text-only copyright result is independent of the much older DEUS TUORUM MILITUM melody and of any later adaptation or harmonization.
Biblical Foundations
Luke 22:19 provides the sacramental starting point: Jesus gives bread to his disciples and commands them to remember him. Kaan’s hymn begins after that act of remembrance, asking what a community renewed at Christ’s table should become when it rises and returns to daily life.
Romans 6:8 and Romans 12:2 illuminate two major movements associated with the hymn in modern hymnals: participation in Christ’s death and life, and the renewal that leads to transformed conduct. The Eucharistic community is not simply reassured; it is called into a new pattern of life shaped by Christ.
First Corinthians 12:25 gives a particularly close theological connection to the hymn’s language of care. Paul insists that the members of Christ’s body should have the same care for one another. Philippians 4:9 carries the movement further from hearing to doing: what has been learned and received must be practiced. Together these passages support the hymn’s characteristic transition from sacrament to service.
Verse Explanation
The opening movement links departure from the Communion table with renewal in Christ. The sacrament is presented as preparation for a changed life rather than as an isolated devotional moment.
The next movement turns renewal toward witness and practice. Christian faith is expected to become visible through what believers say and do as they follow Christ among other people.
The hymn then concentrates on care and shared responsibility. Communion is interpreted as a pattern for serving others and continuing Christ’s work in the world rather than withdrawing from it.
The concluding movement becomes a prayer for courage. The worshiping community asks for strength to continue the pilgrim journey and to meet the demands of the future with faithful obedience.
Theological Reflection
The hymn presents Holy Communion as both gift and sending. At the table, the church receives grace and remembers Christ’s self-giving life; after the table, the church is called to enact that same pattern. Eucharistic worship therefore has an ethical consequence. Communion with Christ cannot be separated from care for the people and communities among whom Christians live.
A second theme is discipleship as embodied renewal. Kaan’s post-Communion vision is not limited to inward spiritual feeling. Renewal engages the whole person and is expressed through choices, relationships, work, and service. This gives the hymn a strong connection with New Testament language about dying and living with Christ and about the transformation of the mind.
The hymn also understands the church communally. Christian service is not merely a collection of private good deeds; it grows from participation in the body of Christ. The sacrament forms a people whose shared life should become visible through mutual care, justice, reconciliation, and responsible action in the world.
Church Impact
The hymn moved rapidly from local use at Pilgrim Church in 1964 into wider British hymnody. After publication in Pilgrim Praise in 1968, it appeared in two important 1969 collections, including the Methodist supplement Hymns and Songs and 100 Hymns for Today. This early adoption helped establish it as a post-Communion text during a period of significant renewal in English-language hymn writing.
Hymnary indexes the hymn in forty-five hymnals, showing circulation across several traditions and regions. Later appearances include The United Methodist Hymnal, the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal, Church Hymnary, Common Praise, Voices United, Community of Christ Sings, and Roman Catholic worship books. Editors frequently classify it under Communion, sending, discipleship, service, mission, social concern, or daily work.
Its contribution is especially clear in post-Communion worship. The hymn gives congregations language for moving from sacramental participation to public responsibility, making the dismissal from worship a theological moment. Its ecumenical reception suggests that this connection between table fellowship and active discipleship has remained meaningful across differing church traditions.
Musical Notes
The United Methodist Hymnal of 1989, no. 634, pairs Now Let Us from This Table Rise with DEUS TUORUM MILITUM, an anonymous long-meter melody from the Grenoble Antiphoner of 1753. The tune was not written for Kaan’s hymn; it predates the text by more than two centuries and belongs to a French Roman Catholic liturgical tradition.
Hymnary’s record for the United Methodist instance credits Ralph Vaughan Williams with a 1906 harmonization and Basil Harwood with a 1908 adaptation. Those are later treatments of the historical melody, not evidence that either musician composed the original tune. Because HymnInfo’s structured roles distinguish composers from unsupported arranger or harmonizer roles, the present contributor data does not misclassify Vaughan Williams or Harwood as composers.
The hymn’s meter is 8.8.8.8, or Long Meter, which has allowed editors to pair it with many melodies. Hymnal instances include SOLOTHURN, NIAGARA, KILLIBEGS, TALLIS’ CANON, WAREHAM, PUER NOBIS NASCITUR, HURSLEY, and others. This musical diversity means that no single tune should be treated as intrinsic to Kaan’s text, even though DEUS TUORUM MILITUM is the represented United Methodist setting suggested by the uploaded contributor data.
Application
- Treat the end of Communion as a commissioning into daily discipleship rather than simply the conclusion of a ritual.
- Ask how participation at one table should change the way Christians respond to people in need, conflict, or isolation.
- Connect spiritual renewal with concrete habits of service, justice, reconciliation, and responsible work.
- Let the church’s shared sacramental life strengthen mutual care within the congregation rather than reinforce individualism.
- Use the hymn as a transition from worship into practical commitments that can be carried into the coming week.
Discussion Questions
- Why does Kaan place Christian service immediately after the experience of Communion?
- How does the idea of the church as Christ’s body deepen the meaning of mutual care?
- What is the difference between leaving worship and being sent from worship?
- How might participation in Communion reshape a congregation’s work for reconciliation, justice, and service?
- Which practical commitments could help a worshiping community carry sacramental grace into the coming week?
Teaching Tips
- Introduce the hymn as Fred Kaan’s first hymn, written in 1964 for post-Communion use at Pilgrim Church in Plymouth.
- Explain the later title “The sacrament of care” as an editorial summary of the hymn’s movement from Eucharist to responsibility.
- Read Luke 22:19 and 1 Corinthians 12:25 together to connect Christ’s table with care within the body of Christ.
- When using The United Methodist Hymnal, identify DEUS TUORUM MILITUM as an anonymous eighteenth-century French melody rather than a composition by Vaughan Williams or Harwood.
- Invite worshipers to name one concrete act of service or reconciliation that can follow from the Communion they have shared.
Sources
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Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology — Now let us from this table rise; 1964 first use and Pilgrim Praise 1968 publication
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Discipleship Ministries, The United Methodist Church — History of Hymns: Now Let Us from This Table Rise by Fred Kaan
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Hymnary.org — Now Let Us from This Table Rise text authority; copyright, meter, tunes, and hymnal circulation
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Hymnary.org — The United Methodist Hymnal 1989 no. 634; DEUS TUORUM MILITUM setting and music credits
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Hymnary.org — DEUS TUORUM MILITUM tune authority; Grenoble Antiphoner 1753 source history
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The Guardian — The Rev Fred Kaan obituary by Paul Oestreicher
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Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology — Frederik Kaan biography
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World English Bible Classic — Luke 22
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World English Bible Classic — Romans 6
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World English Bible Classic — Romans 12
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World English Bible Classic — 1 Corinthians 12
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World English Bible Classic — Philippians 4
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Lawphil — Republic Act No. 8293, Sections 213–214, Philippine copyright term
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U.S. Copyright Office — Copyright Act, Chapter 3, duration of copyright
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