Baptized in water

Baptized in water. Michael Saward* (1932-2015). This was the second of three hymns for baptism written within four days, and the third of four used in a teaching series on the subject when the author was vicar of Ealing in West London. Like others, he had become concerned at the dearth of convincing and singable hymns for baptism. The date of writing this one was 29 May 1981; the following year all four were published in HFTC of which he was the words editor, together with two by Michael Perry* and four other contemporary texts. The ‘sign of Christ our King’ is based on expressions in recent Anglican and other liturgies, but the words are chiefly and vividly grounded in scriptures from...