# Brian Wren **Summary.** British hymn writer and theologian, b. 1936. One of the most influential progressive hymnodists of the late 20th century. Former Congregationalist / United Reformed Church minister in the UK, later John and Miriam Conant Professor of Worship at Columbia Theological Seminary (2000–2007). Stub entry — "Christ Is Alive" is hymn #205 in the St. John's UCC hymnal and was used on 2026-04-19. ## Tradition Progressive mainline Protestant. Wren is widely sung in UCC, PC(USA), UMC, and United Reformed Church (UK) hymnals. His hymns are explicitly gender-inclusive in God-language and humanity-language; he is one of the earliest major hymn writers to do this systematically. ## Works Relevant to This Wiki - **"Christ Is Alive"** (1968, rev. 1995) — Easter hymn. Notable because it **refuses to localize Christ in first-century Palestine** and instead proclaims him "here and now / and touching every place and time." Verse 3 names "every insult, rift, and war, / where color scorns or wealth divides" as sites of Christ's continuing passion. Verse 4 is overtly inclusive: "Women and men, in age and youth." Passes easily at St. John's UCC. - **"Great God, Your Love Has Called Us Here"** — a major covenant hymn. - ***What Language Shall I Borrow? God-Talk in Worship: A Male Response to Feminist Theology*** (Crossroad, 1989) — book-length theological reflection on gender and God-language in liturgy. A foundational text for anyone doing worship-team lyric evaluation from a feminist-theological angle. - ***Praying Twice: The Music and Words of Congregational Song*** (Westminster John Knox, 2000) — pastoral theology of hymnody. ## Theological Themes - **Gender-inclusive God-language** — Wren argues theologically (not just liturgically) for expanding pronouns and metaphors for God without abandoning orthodoxy. - **Embodied, social, justice-forward Christology** — Christ suffers in contemporary injustice and is alive in contemporary liberation. - **Communal singing as formation** — hymns are catechesis; what we sing shapes what we believe. ## Relationship to Worship-Team Analysis Wren is a **positive reference point** for the [[Worship Songs Evaluated]] project. When evaluating contemporary worship lyrics, Wren's criteria from *What Language Shall I Borrow?* give a defensible progressive-mainline framework: does the language treat women as fully included, does it avoid reducing God to a domesticated or romanticized object, does it hold embodied justice together with doxology? ## Sources - [[2026-04-19 St Johns UCC Pauls Conversion]] — hymn #205 in the 3rd Sunday of Easter bulletin. ## Status **Stub.** Dedicated ingest of *What Language Shall I Borrow?* recommended when a copy is available.