Thou who dost rule on high

Thou who dost rule on high. Robert Wesley Littlewood* (1908-1976). This hymn was printed in the School Hymn Book of the Methodist Church (1950), and thereafter in BHB, CH3, HP, and other books, normally set to ST JOHN (ADORATION), from The Parish Choir or Church Music Book, volume III (1851), edited by William Henry Monk*. It is unusual in that it is a prayer for airmen: it was written in 1939, at the beginning of the Second World War, for a Methodist Church at Portstewart, Northern Ireland. Littlewood said that ‘there was need for a hymn on this subject, and, as no other was known to me, I ventured to supply it’ (Kelynack, 1950, p. 399): Thou who dost rule on high,   Our Father and our...