Celebrating Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month #4

The words and music of "Here, O Lord, Your Servants Gather," United Methodist Hymnal #552, were composed for the Fourteenth World Council of Christian Education Convention in Japan in 1958. It was written amid the tensions of the decade following the dropping of the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki and following Russia's launch of Sputnik. It is a prayer that Jesus will unite the church in peace, recognizing Jesus as the Way, Truth, and Life.

Tokuo Yamaguchi (1900-1995), author of the text, was a Methodist minister in Japan. Composer Isao Koizumi (1958-1992) was an organist, composer, hymnal editor and a leading figure in Japanese hymnody.

(Source: Carlton Young, Companion to The United Methodist Hymnal, 1993.)