God the Spirit, guide and guardian

God the Spirit, guide and guardian. Carl P. Daw, Jr.* (1944- ). Written in 1987 for Jeffery Rowthorn* at his consecration at New Haven as Suffragan Bishop of the Diocese of Connecticut, 19 September 1987. On this occasion verse 2 line 5 was ‘in your tending may all bishops’, altered in Daw’s A Year of Grace (Carol Stream, 1990) to ‘pastors’, which is in keeping with the theme of the ‘Shepherd’s care’ in that verse (but see below). The structure of the hymn is Trinitarian, with verse 4 beginning ‘Triune God, mysterious Being’, but it varies the traditional order by having three verses (1) to the Holy Spirit, (2) to Christ the Saviour, and (3) to God, ‘Great Creator, Life-bestower’. The...