Fire of God, Thou Sacred Flame

Short Name: Albert F. Bayly
Full Name: Bayly, Albert F.
Birth Year: 1901
Death Year: 1984

Albert Frederick Bayly was born on September 6, 1901, in Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, England. He was educated at Hastings Grammar School and later received technical training as a shipwright at the Royal Dockyard School in Portsmouth. He pursued higher education at London University, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1924. He subsequently trained for the ministry at Mansfield College, Oxford, from 1925 to 1928, and was ordained in 1929 within the Congregational Church, later part of the United Reformed Church.

Bayly served in a series of pastoral appointments throughout England. His ministerial posts included Whitley Bay, Northumberland (1928 to 1938), Morpeth (1938 to 1946), Hollingreave, Burnley (1946 to 1950), Swanland in the East Riding of Yorkshire (1950 to 1956), Eccleston, St. Helens, Lancashire (1956 to 1962), and Thaxted, Essex (1962 to 1972). In addition to parish ministry, he held leadership responsibilities as Director of the London Missionary Society. He also received recognition for his contribution to church music and hymnody, including appointment as Honorary Fellow of Westminster Choir College, Princeton, New Jersey, and Honorary Vice President of the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland.

Bayly began writing hymns in 1945, with the intention of articulating Christian theology in dialogue with modern scientific understanding and contemporary social issues. His work is widely regarded as influential in the development of modern English hymnody following the Second World War. He is frequently identified as a pioneer figure whose work anticipated the significant expansion of new hymn writing in the latter half of the twentieth century. His hymn texts often drew on biblical theology, natural imagery, and contemporary language, and several were written for specific occasions, including events related to science, education, and social responsibility.

He collaborated with composer William Lloyd Webber (1914 to 1982) by providing texts for three cantatas: The Divine Compassion (written 1953, published 1954), Look on the Fields (written 1954, published 1955), and Song of Bethlehem (1954). Over the course of his life, Bayly wrote nearly 200 hymns, including 26 intended for children, as well as more than 60 poems. Many of these materials are preserved in the Special Collections of Durham University Library. His writings were largely issued in five privately published collections: Rejoice O People (1950), Again I Say Rejoice (1967), Rejoice Always (1971), Rejoice in God (1977), and Rejoice Together (1982).

In his personal life, Bayly married Marjorie Shilston in 1933. Following her death in 1948, he married Grace Fountain in 1950. He retired from active ministry in 1971 and relocated to Springfield, Chelmsford, where he remained involved in the local United Reformed Church. He died on July 26, 1984, in Chichester, Sussex, England.