O threefold God of tender unity

O threefold God of tender unity. William (Bill) Wallace* (1933-). Written by a New Zealand Methodist minister, Bill Wallace, for the 1988 Hymn Society of America’s search for ‘new hymns with a new vision of the living God’. It was the winning entry. In the author’s words, ‘the text attempts to hold together the intangible and incarnate dimensions of the Trinity while avoiding paternalistic concepts of power’. Typical of Wallace’s reforming theology, in this hymn the Trinity, ‘Parent, Spirit, Child’, is praised in successive verses as the fiery splendour of prophetic minds, and the life force, shared in ‘every creative dream’ and felt in the birth of love and reconciliation. Also typical is...