... was originally a poem by Cecil Spring Rice, who was British Ambassador to the USA from 1912 to 1918 (and influenced the decision of the Wilson administration to abandon neutrality and join Britain in the war against Germany). The poem, which was written in 1908 or 1912, describes how a Christian owes his loyalties to both his homeland and the heavenly kingdom. Its original title was Urbs Dei (the City of God), or The Two Fatherlands.
Gustav Holst adapted a theme from the Jupiter section of his Planets suite (written in 1918) to fit Spring Rice's words, in 1921. Five years later, Holst's friend Ralph Vaughan Williams included it in his hymnal Songs of Praise, with the name of the tune given as Thaxted – after the small town in rural Essex where Holst lived for much of his life.
© Haydn Thompson 2021