"The Church's One Foundation" Thumbs down
A couple of Sundays ago at my parish Church we sang “The Church’s One Foundation”. I had a visceral and negative reaction to this hymn, and on my blog I referred to it as being triumphalistic. A respected friend (and Priest) questioned the use of this word. He was right – it was a poor choice on my part. So here is my attempt to “fill out” why I strongly dislike the hymn (and why I wish that we did not sing it). --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Presbyterian Minister and Hymnologist Louis Benson (1855-1930) quotes one English archbishop as saying that “wherever he was called upon to open or dedicate a church, he could always count on two things— cold chicken and ‘The Church’s one Foundation’ .” As I have previously noted the hymn was written in 1866 by Samuel John Stone (as part of his series of twelve hymns which he wrote to explicate the Apostles Creed). “The Church’s one Foundation” is in pa