Hymn Reflection: All Who Love and Serve Your City

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Reflections on Music, Worship, and Spiritual Formation

6 min readApr 9, 2019

Introduction

Alone in a room at a workshop session of the Scottish Churches’ Music Consultation at Dunblane in 1966 sat Erik Routley (1917–1982) as he labored to compose a melody as he had many times before. In the room next to him, another composer attempted the same task; however, he could only do so by singing loudly, distractingly so. Unable to create a new melody because of the noise, Routley turned his attention to writing a text as he reflected on a beautiful melody by Peter Cutts (b. 1934), which had no text, and the peacefulness of the Scottish country town in contrast to the turmoil that was taking place in the United States, whose cities were suffering from riots related to civil rights and large-scale protests against the Vietnam War. These reflections resulted in Routley’s first and most widely used hymn text, “All Who Love and Serve Your City.”

Erik Routley

Erik Routley was born in Brighton, Sussex on October 31, 1917. His father was a businessman and in 1936–37, the mayor of Brighton, while his mother was a homemaker and musician. Early on, Routley studied piano and organ and developed a love of hymnody. At Lancing, Magdalen, and Mansfield Colleges, he studied theology, receiving many degrees, while also continuing to practice music.

In 1943 he was ordained to the ministry of the Congregational Union of England and Wales (CUEW), a development of the English Separatists of the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to be independent of the Church of England. The CUEW was renamed the Congregational Church of England and Wales (CCEW) in 1965 until their merger with the Presbyterian Church in 1972 which formed the Reformed Church of England and Wales (RCEW). He served Congregational churches as a minister from 1943 to 1974, including two years as president of the CCEW.

In 1975, following the merger that formed the RCEW, Routley relocated to the United States as a visiting professor of music at Princeton Theological Seminary before permanently becoming the Professor of Church Music and Director of the Chapel at Westminster Choir College from 1975 until his death in 1982 in Nashville, TN.

Over the course of his life, Routley contributed immensely to 20th century hymnody as a member of the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland and and as editor of its respective publication, the Bulletin. Additionally, he served as both an editor of and contributor to several hymnals and their companions and wrote many articles and books, including A Panorama of Christian Hymnody. The Hymn Society of the United States and Canada posthumously elected him as a fellow in 1985, but perhaps most notably, he was the first non-Anglican to be elected a fellow of the Royal School of Church Music.

The Hymn

Tunes: BIRABUS, CHARLESTOWN
Meter: 8.7.8.7.

As noted earlier, Routley’s first melodic inspiration for the hymn was a tune (BIRABUS) by Peter Cutts, with whom Routley would later collaborate to create the hymnal New Church Praise in 1975. However, more frequently used according to Hymnary, with more than half of its occurrences set to this tune, is CHARLESTOWN from The United States Sacred Harmony (1799) and The Southern Harmony (1835). At the bottom, one can observe a representation of the text with each of the two tunes as well as a recording to CHARLESTOWN by the Harvard University Choir.

STANZA 1

All who love and serve your city,
All who bear its daily stress,
All who cry for peace and justice,
All who curse and all who bless:

In the opening stanza Routley, considering the adversity of 1966 America, addresses the audience of the modern city. [1] Daily they are bearing the stress of a land that is divided in the midst of massive movements regarding civil rights and the Vietnam War, and thus they cry for peace and justice as many respond with cursing to their present situation.

STANZA 2

In your day of loss, of sorrow,
In your day of helpless strife,
Honor, peace, and love retreating,
Seek the Lord who is your life.

In the second stanza, as well as the next, Routley draws attention to the circumstances of those he is addressing and offers a charge in how they should respond. In loss, sorrow, and helpless strife, rather than focusing on things that are on the earth, the individual can find hope in seeking Christ, who is the believer’s life, knowing that when Christ appears, they will also appear with him in glory (Col 3:1–4).

STANZA 3

In your day of wealth and plenty,
Wasted work and wasted play,
Call to mind the word of Jesus,
“Work ye yet while it is day.”

Juxtaposed with the loss, sorrow, and helpless strife of stanza two is wasted work and play in light of wealth and plenty in stanza three. In his first biblical quotation, Routley exhorts the audience to heed the words of Christ in John 9:4. “While it is day” refers to the time of Jesus’s earthly ministry, while the “night” would be the time of Jesus’s crucifixion and death. This statement communicates a sense of urgency to accomplish the work of ministry while the opportunity is present. For Routley, the urgent ministry needed was healing and reconciliation in a society torn by civil injustice.

STANZA 4

For all days are days of judgment,
And the Lord is waiting still,
Drawing near to all who spurn Him,
Offering peace from Calvary’s hill.

This stanza draws attention to the gospel of Jesus Christ as the solution to provide healing and reconciliation. The peace that is offered from “Calvary’s hill” is well-presented in Ephesians 2:11–22. In Paul’s discourse to the church in Ephesus, he reveals that Christ makes peace between the Jew and Gentile, creating one unified people of God (Eph 2:11–15). Additionally, Christ through the cross reconciles this unified people to God giving them access in one Spirit to the Father (Eph 2:16–18). Finally, Paul points out the implications of Christ’s peace. No longer strangers and aliens, all those who trust in Christ are fellow citizens with the saints, members of the household of God, and the dwelling place for God by the Spirit (Eph 2:19–22).

STANZA 5

Risen Lord, shall yet the city
be the city of despair?
Come today, our Judge, our Glory,
Be its name, “The Lord is there!”

The second and final biblical quotation in this hymn is cited from the final verse of Ezekiel’s prophecy. This city’s new name is to be “The Lord is there!” (Ezek 48:35), communicating the character of the city as one in which God’s presence among his people is evident. Understood with an eternal perspective, “no longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him” (Rev 22:3). This is the great hope for the modern “city of despair.” Knowing that reconciliation and peace is offered in Christ, those “who love and serve [their] city” can look forward to a greater city without stress, injustice, loss, sorrow, helpless strife, or wasted work and play.

Conclusion

While this is a rich hymn filled with biblical allusions and truth, one must be cautious in his or her usage of the hymn in a congregational setting. Routley clearly had social injustice outside of the church in mind, and in today’s climate where these issues have intensified, one may be tempted to interpret this hymn in such a way as to impose secular circumstances onto a text whose biblical foundations are limited to the people of God. The problems to which God’s Word seeks to address and the hope it offers are not for society as a whole, but the people of God. When understood this way Routley’s hymn provides the people of God with a rich text to sing reflecting on their own depravity and the adversity they experience because of it, recognizing that Christ’s redeeming work on the cross has brought them peace and reconciliation, giving them eternal hope of a perfect city.