Somerset Corry Lowry (1855–1932) wrote this text in 1893 while serving as vicar of North Holmwood in Surrey, and it carries an unusual blend of high Christology and social conscience. He meant it as a “socially minded” hymn: it first appeared in the journal Goodwill in 1894 under the heading “Christian Brotherhood. Members one of another,” and an 1895 hymnal of the Christian Social Union, an Anglican body founded to address the needs of the poor, soon adopted it. The text leans on our Lord’s high priestly prayer in John 17, “that they may be one even as We are one,” and presses the same point: those who are redeemed are members one of another. Our hymnal uses four of Lowry’s six stanzas (1, 3, 4, and 6), each turning between praise and petition. Stanza 1 confesses the eternal Savior who was foreknown before the foundation of the world, became flesh, and now pleads for His own as our advocate. The tune IN BABILONE entered English use in the 1906 English Hymnal.
Sung at Our Saviour
2026