Sounding Childhood Main Menu Part 1: Children's Hymns Part 2: Songs for School and Play Part 3: Animal Welfare (Bands of Mercy) Songs Part 4: Christmas Carols Part 5: Folk Songs Part 6: Patriotic Songs Part 7: Early 20th-Century Hymns About the Author Works Cited

"What a Friend We Have In Jesus"

43370 "All things bright and beautiful"


“What a Friend we have in Jesus” was written by Canadian Joseph Scriven in 1855. Born in Ireland, Scriven watched his fiancé drown and escaped to Canada where he wrote this hymn in his own sorrow but also for his mother which he sent back to Ireland; she published it there anonymously. The beautiful tune "Converse" was written by Charles Converse. It has become a beloved hymn to many experiencing difficulties, including children, and by the early 20th-century was in 52% of American children's hymnals (Clapp-Itnyre, "The Legacy of Victorian Hymnody in Children’s British and American Hymnbooks, 1840-1940” p. 29).

Singers: Sophie, Greta, Sam, Lilly, and Hope Royer were original singers in the Community Choristers (2024) and chose this hymn to sing it, in harmony, at our 2025 Evensong concert. (image above)
Score: #240 from The Parish School Hymnal (Philadelphia: United Lutheran, 1926), 2nd image, above.

 

This page has paths:

  1. Part 7: Early 20th-Century Hymns Alisa Clapp-Itnyre

Contents of this path:

  1. Royers sing What a Friend 2025
  2. What a Friend score