When the Architect Almighty fashioned had the heaven and earth. Bishop C. Wordsworth of Lincoln. [Consecration of a Church.] Appeared in his Holy Year, 1862, p. 221, in 10 double stanzas of 4 lines, and headed "Consecration of Churches, or Laying the First Stone." In the 3rd ed. of the Holy Year it was repeated in two parts, Pt. ii. beginning "O'er the Font's baptismal waters may the Holy Spirit move." Usually this hymn is given in an abbreviated form, that adopted by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge Church Hymns, 1871, being the most popular. For its special purpose, for use at the Consecration of a Church, it is one of the finest hymns in common use.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
Christopher Wordsworth--nephew of the great lake-poet, William Wordsworth--was born in 1807. He was educated at Winchester, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A., with high honours, in 1830; M.A. in 1833; D.D. in 1839. He was elected Fellow of his College in 1830, and public orator of the University in 1836; received Priest's Orders in 1835; head master of Harrow School in 1836; Canon of Westminster Abbey in 1844; Hulsean Lecturer at Cambridge in 1847-48; Vicar of Stanford-in-the-Vale, Berks, in 1850; Archdeacon of Westminster, in 1865; Bishop of Lincoln, in 1868. His writings are numerous, and some of them very valuable. Most of his works are in prose. His "Holy Year; or, Hymns for Sundays, Holidays, and other occ… Go to person page >
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