Fred Pratt Green: The other Methodist hymn writer

• When in Our Music God is Glorified [UMH 68]

• For the Fruits of This Creation [UMH 97b]

When Our Confidence is Shaken [UMH 505]

• God is Here! [UMH 660]

• O Christ, the Healer [UMH 265]

Through the years, changes in worship style, culture, and musical preferences have increased the variety of congregational songs. There are hymns, contemporary songs, psalm settings, global songs, Asian hymns, gospel songs—among other genres. Which genre does your congregation love to sing?

The music we sing reflects our identity. As Methodists, we sing the hymns of Charles and John Wesley. More than just keeping tradition, the Wesleyan hymns offer a music diet that is robust in Scripture, theology, doctrine and Christian discipleship.

Aside from the Wesleyan hymns, there are other Methodist composers whose texts help shape our Christian identity. I particularly want to mention Rev Fred Pratt Green (1903-2000), a Methodist minister in Britain from 1928-1969. He was a gifted poet, and only started writing hymn texts after his retirement, yet was acclaimed to be the greatest hymn writer after Charles Wesley. He was the leader of the "Hymn Explosion" in Great Britain in the 1970s, a movement of hymn writers who believed it was time to write texts that spoke about their time.

These hymn writers felt the responsibility to fill the gap in hymnody, particularly in themes pertaining to social justice, racial equality, world peace, environmental issues, and the like. Rev Green acknowledged hymn writing as, "a fascinating assignment. I had no doubt at all that if, as a poet, I had complete liberty to choose my themes, my forms, and language, to please myself, now, as a hymn writer I must become a servant of the Church, writing what was suitable to be sung in an act of worship". 1

In a world full of anxiety over the future, disagreements in beliefs and heightened materialistic values, Rev Green's hymns are worth exploring. For example:

If our hearts are lifted where devotion soars high above this hungry, suffering world of ours, lest our hymns should drug us to forget its needs, forge our Christian worship into Christian deed.

- Stanza 2 [UMH 592], Fred Pratt Green

The phrase, "lest our hymns should drug us to forget its needs…," reminds us to be mindful of the songs we sing. If music helps shape our identity, we need to make sure we also sing songs that heighten our awareness of the world around us and call us to respond.

Rev Green has contributed much and was very committed to writing congregational songs. Like Charles Wesley, Rev Green wrote about the Christian experience. He gave emphasis on the life and death of Jesus, hymns on Communion and profound theology. Both advocated the virtue of social holiness. However, they spoke from and for different generations.

With the vast amount of music resources available for worship, we need a balanced diet for the congregation. It is crucial that we curate songs that ground us biblically and theologically, strengthen us emotionally, and form us spiritually. It may be taxing, but it is a discipline we need to undertake. Whether it be a hymn, a contemporary song, a psalm or a choral anthem—let them be songs that form and shape us to be like Jesus.

The proverb, "The apple does not fall far from the tree", speaks of the idea that we each carry something within us that is from our parents. It could be a physical characteristic (like our eye colour), a food allergy, or a personality trait (like being particular about cleanliness or having a quick temper).

As a family and marital therapist, I have a professional interest in this topic. I want to know which legacies that my clients embody are from their family-of-origin or birth families. I wonder to what extent a client's tendency to worry is an outcome of parents who are themselves worriers. Or if growing up in a single-parent household is the "cause" of a client's sensitivity to issues of interpersonal trust and relational insecurity?

I am, however, clear that we cannot as yet find a single cause to every behaviour. No gene has yet been found for one's temper or anxiety. Yet the probability of an individual developing behavioural characteristics that are observed in other family members is just too high to ignore or assign it as due to chance.

In addition to biological legacies, let us not forget that the way our parents have raised us influences our development. This includes what they have been able to provide for us in our growing years. For example, a child may perform better academically because his parents are able to afford tuition for his weaker subjects. There is also the impact of adverse childhood experiences on a child's tender years and their adulthood. Adverse experiences may include breakup of the family, economic hardship and traumatic events.

All this may paint a very reductionistic and deterministic view of humans, that indeed, "the apple does not fall far from the tree". However, we all know of stories of people who beat the odds. People with humble backgrounds who rose to stand head and shoulders above others. Or individuals who led terrible lives for years, even decades, and yet managed to pull themselves out of their quagmire. How did these individuals do it?

I believe change begins with the belief that change is possible. The hope for, and even the expectation of, change are important ingredients to things being different. Some believers may cling to the verse, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come" ( 2 Cor 5:17). Those who hold different beliefs may have to look at scientific evidence or even personal life stories to nurture this hope.

Yet some Christians may not feel like new creations at all. They may notice that their character weaknesses do not miraculously vanish. Besides considering if these individuals are truly "in Christ", we may do well to recognise that change is oftentimes a work in progress.

What steps then do we take to live a changed life? Do we recognise features of the old unchanged individual constantly trying to resurface? I sometimes explain it like this. Suppose you had a shoulder injury which requires your dominant arm to be immobilised for a period of time. What may happen is that when we need to open a door or turn on a switch, we may automatically reach out with our dominant arm. It takes conscious effort to remember to use the other "good" one.

A changed life requires recognising the old tendencies and consciously making a habit of doing the opposite. "One day at a time" is a helpful reminder when trying to break old destructive habits like an addiction.

Another help for believers is the legacy our Lord himself left us—the Holy Spirit (John 14:16-17), who inspires and empowers us to overcome unhelpful and debilitating earthly legacies.

The legacies we all have can be positive and helpful ones, or be negative and unhelpful. We need to recognise them and build on those that can develop us while at the same time minimise the negative tendencies we each have.