When I was a student at the University of East Anglia in the late 1980s, Timothy Dudley-Smith was Bishop of Thetford, and had pastoral oversight of the University Chaplaincy. He would come and preach on occasional Sunday mornings, and he was among those who made the annual decision as to whom to appoint as the Anglican Chaplain's assistant. In 1990, that choice fell on me, for the academic year 1990 - 1991.
When I went to UEA, I suspect the only hymn by 'TDS' which I knew was his best-known hymn, Tell out my soul, which was the very first hymn he ever wrote (in 1961), first published in 1965. Since then, he has written over 400 more. Sadly, few of them have been included in major hymn books, but of those which have, I shall no doubt include more in future posts on this blog.
According to The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology, Name of all Majesty is a "poetic exposition of the phrase 'Jesus is Lord,'" the earliest Baptismal Creed of the Church (1 Corinthians 12:3; Romans 10:9; Philippians 2:11). It was published in 1979, and is usually set to the tune Majestas by Michael Baughen, which I believe was written for this hymn. Name of all Majesty declares the Lordship of Christ in relatively few, carefully chosen and crafted words, set to a rousing tune - a great modern hymn by a great modern hymn-writer.
There aren't many renditions of Name of all Majesty available on YouTube. This one is a lyric video (the words are still under copyright, so I can't include them in my text). But I prefer this recording to listen to.
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