Dudley-Smith, Timothy

TIMOTHY DUDLEY-SMITH (b. 1926) was born in Manchester, England. He was educated at Tonbridge School and Pembroke College, Cambridge. He retired in 1991 after almost 20 years in the Diocese of Norwich, as Archdeacon of Norwich and then as Bishop of Thetford. He currently resides in the Cathedral City of Salisbury. In 1997, he was honored by being named a "Fellow" in the Hymn Society of the United States and Canada, a rare accomplishment for a British hymnwriter. Dudley-Smith has been writing hymn texts for more than 30 years, and still writes 6 or 8 new hymns each year. His collected texts now number over 300, and are published in more than 250 hymnals throughout the English-speaking world. Asked to write the biography of his friend John Stott, the task required two volumes. The first volume JOHN STOTT - THE MAKING OF A LEADER won him the distinction of being the first recipient of the John C. Pollock award for Christian Biography. The Beeson Divinity School, Samford University, Birmingham, AL, made the presentation. These books are published by Intervarsity Press in Westmont, Illinois. In 2003, Hope copublished with the Oxford University Press, England, his collected works titled "A HOUSE OF PRAISE." This book replaces his four collections of texts published by Hope: LIFT EVERY HEART (1984); SONGS OF DELIVERANCE (1988); A VOICE OF SINGING (1993), and GREAT IS THE GLORY (1997). He controls the copyrights on his texts in the U.K., Ireland, Africa and all of Europe. Hope controls his copyrights in the rest of the world. Eighteen Dudley-Smith hymn texts can be found in Hope's new hymnal WORSHIP & REJOICE (2001). In 2003, he was appointed an honorary vice-president of the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland; and in the New Year Honours of that year was awarded an OBE "for services to hymnody". He maintains a website describing his publications at www.timothydudley-smith.com.