Who loves ya, Baby?
German propaganda poster, 1917
I’m not a huge fan of patriotic odes to royalty, or of organized religion, but it does strike me that, as usual, the Church of England is going out of its way to offend the last of its congregation.
A leading Church of England vicar yesterday condemned the words of one of the country’s best-loved hymns as obscene, offensive and unfit to be sung by Christians.
The Reverend Gordon Giles, one of the Anglicans’ leading authorities on hymns, declared that I Vow to Thee My Country should be rewritten if it is to be sung by modern congregations.
His verdict was delivered in advance of the remembrance weekend when the hymn, which is especially valued by military families, will feature in thousands of services across the country and the Commonwealth.
Its patriotic words, written in the final year of the First World War, speak of the ‘final sacrifice’ made by those that love their country, and end with a promise of peace in heaven.
The hymn has been among the most popular since the 1920s. It was a favourite of both Princess Diana and Margaret Thatcher, and was sung at Lady Thatcher’s funeral at St Paul’s in April.
But Mr Giles – a former succentor responsible for hymns at St Paul’s – called I Vow to Thee My Country ‘dated’ and ‘unjust’.
He said in an article in the Church Times: ‘Many would question whether we can sing of a love that “asks no question”, that “lays on the altar the dearest and the best” and that juxtaposes the service of country and that “other country” of faith.
Mr Giles said that the hymn had a ‘dated military concept of fighting for King and country.
This, he said, ‘gives offence, as it is based on the idea of a king as head of an empire, whose bounds need to be preserved for the benefit of subjects at home and abroad.
‘In post-colonial Britain this comes across as patronising and unjust. Associating duty to King and Empire with a divine call to kill people and surrender one’s own life is a theologically inept reading of Jesus’ teaching.’
Mr Giles, who is vicar of St Mary Magdalene in Enfield in North London, added: ‘Furthermore, if the cause is wealth, power, influence, national pride, then the sacrifice is diminished and its connection to the pride of suffering is, for me, almost obscene.’
Pal Nancy’s church removed “Onward, Christian Soldiers” from its hymnal years ago when the Congregationalists bowdlerized the sect’s entire collection of approved songs, purging all that mentioned war or God “the Father” and, I kid you not, substituting American Indian songs instead. Indians were animists, not Christians, and rather bloodthirsty practitioners of rape, pillage and torture, but they were also a matriarchal society, so that balances out and makes it okay, apparently. My next, and only visit to that institution will be in a pine box, and I have requested that Nancy order up Mr. Sullivan’s piece as the final recessional music. The walls will surely come tumbling down.
For What It's Worth 
This type of moaning is not new. According to Wikipedia “In August 2004, the Right Reverend Stephen Lowe, Bishop of Hulme, called for the first verse not to be used in Church of England services, calling it “totally heretical”.[9] His view that it placed national loyalties above religious ones, an unquestioning support of governments, opened a debate on its wider implications” .
Also verse 2 has been pretty much declared un-PC.
To those not familiar this Catherine Jenkins version is worth a few minutes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHh8isGtB6w
Or this from the Royal British Legion:
Chris, you’re right about the bowdlerization of most of the Protestant hymnals. I was quite surprised see that Sullivan’s hymn somehow survived in the latest version of the Episcopal hymnal, but for denominations that were not so lucky, I have noticed that it is still allowed on special occasions, e.g., the funeral of a WW II veteran. Most recently, it was played for Malcolm Pray’s service at the First Presbyterian Church, replete with multiple trumpet fanfares improvised by organist Randy Atcheson. Mal would have been very pleased.
*”to see”
I’ll gladly play the organ if I’m still of this earth by then.
Not really a concern of mine anymore but it is sad to note the rundown Catholic church I attend on a gritty side street in the Garment District draws many more worshipers to its weekday Latin mass than the Episcopal church I used to attend off Park Avenue on the Upper East Side to its Sunday high mass. In their never-ending attempts to become more “relevant,” the Anglicans and most other protestant denominations have become almost entirely irrelevant.
Agree. We go to St. Mary’s The Virgin on west 46th. It’s very high Episcopal so basically Catholic but not. Very diverse group of parishioners from actors to homeless needing a warm pew. We gave up on Heavenly Snooze on 5th a long time ago.
My father’s favorite hymn was “Onward, Christian Soldiers” but St Paul’s had banned it years ago. But my father requested it be sung at his memorial service, yes before he died, so we did. That was over 16 years ago. A number of the attendees said after the service, “What a great old hymn, how come we don’t sing that anymore?”
The Pilgrim Hymnal (the old Red one) is still in the pews on Sound Beach Avenue — the new Black one with the politcally correct chants is used sparingly, thank God.