View the Church Where Holy, Holy, Holy was First Sung

Reginald Heber
1783-1826

One of President Haynal's hobbies is researching the history of hymns.  He is now on an 8-day "vacation" in the United Kingdom visiting sites related to some of Christendom's most beloved hymns.  What follows is one of a few reports he will make while on this journey.

It was for Trinity Sunday at his church in Hodnet that Reginald Heber wrote the words for the beloved hymn, Holy, Holy, Holy.  I am not sure to which tune those words were sung on that Sunday.  The tune most Christians use was written many years later by John Dykes.





Another Heber hymn you may know is From Greenland's Icy Mountains.  Heber wrote the hymn in 20 minutes when his father-in-law asked him at the supper table if he might compose something for the congregation to sing the next day at St. Giles Church in Wrexham (not far from Hodnet).  Shown below is a less-than-adequate photo of Heber's handwritten copy of From Greenland's Icy Mountains that is on display at St. Giles Church in Wrexham.

One section of stained glass windows is dedicated to Heber's famous missionary
hymn.