I come with joy, a child of God

I come with joy, a child of God. Brian Wren* (1936- ). This hymn for Holy Communion was written in 1968 as ‘I come with joy to meet my Lord’, when Wren was a minister of Hockley and Hawkwell Congregational Church, and first published in The Hymn Book (1971) of the Anglican Church of Canada and the United Church of Canada. It has since gone through two changes. The original text, in which stanza 2 line 3 was ‘man’s true community of love’ and stanza 3 line 1 was ‘As Christ breaks bread for men to share’, is found in Praise for Today (1974), in MHfT (1980), and thus in A&MNS, and also in WOV. It was then published in Wren’s Mainly Hymns (Leeds, 1980), with the title ‘Christ making...