How widely now does Christ stretch out his arms
How widely now does Christ stretch out his arms. Paul Wigmore* (1925-2014).
This text was one of the author’s personal favourites. It has been broadcast by the BBC on both Choral Evensong and the Daily Service. Drafted in 1983 in the car park of Edington Priory in Wiltshire ‘after a particularly moving Matins’, it was finalised at his home in Pinner, Middlesex. John Barnard* composed his tune EDINGTON for the words; author and composer combined regularly in providing items for worship at the annual Edington Festival, where the hymn was first sung in 1985.
The concept of Christ’s arms being stretched out, voluntarily in welcome (or at least in willing suffering) as well as involuntarily...
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Chicago style (see The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th Ed.)
. "How widely now does Christ stretch out his arms."
The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology. Canterbury Press, accessed March 7, 2026,
http://www.hymnology.co.uk/h/how-widely-now-does-christ-stretch-out-his-arms.