Tributes to hymn writer and ex Bishop of Thetford 

Prolific hymn writer and former Bishop of Thetford, the Rt Rev Timothy Dudley-Smith, has died at the age of 97.

Bishop Timothy wrote “Tell Out My Soul” and more than other 400 hymns and served as Bishop of Thetford in the Diocese of Norwich from 1981 to 1992.
 
Prior to being consecrated as a bishop, the celebrated hymn writer was the Archdeacon of Norwich from 1973 to 1981.  In total, Bishop Timothy and his wife Arlette spent 18 years serving the people and places of the Diocese of Norwich where they were much loved.
 
For 12 years, Bishop Timothy was Chairman of the Diocesan Council of Education and its successor, the Board of Education. As well as this, he supported the University of East Anglia and had oversight of Anglican ministry in the three prisons within the Diocese.
 
Bishop Timothy wrote the lyrics of around 400 hymns, among which the most familiar are ‘Lord, for the years’ and ‘Tell Out, my soul’. He retired in 1991 and moved away from the Diocese of Norwich in 1992.
 
Paying tribute, the Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Rev Graham Usher, said: “Bishop Timothy Dudley-Smith was a much-respected Bishop of Thetford. He was particularly involved with education and vocations within the diocese. I have heard how on school visits he would entertain pupils by balancing his crozier (a bishop’s pastoral staff) on his chin!
 
“A retired priest told me how Bishop Timothy gave him the thumbs up to continuing his ordination training when others thought him too ‘risky’ as a long-haired biker. Bishop Timothy and his wife, Arlette, served the Diocese of Norwich for 18 years and continued to pay an active interest in our life in retirement.
 
“When I became Bishop of Norwich, Bishop Timothy wrote a most warm and encouraging letter, and we corresponded further about his passion for the environment. Of course, he was a well-known hymn-writer, including the block-buster ‘Tell out my soul’ which has encouraged many people in their Christian faith, or to add their ‘yes’ to God’s call in their lives and make a commitment to following Jesus. In the words of that hymn, may Bishop Timothy now fully know “the greatness of the Lord.”
 
Born in 1926 and, having developed a firm faith in adolescence, he completed training for Holy Orders at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, and was ordained in Rochester Cathed­ral.

Bishop Timothy was a leading figure among evangelicals in the Church of England. He became editor of Crusade magazine, created in 1954 after a Billy Graham crusade in London. He was a long-standing friend of John R.W. Stott’s, and wrote a two-volume biography of Stott. He preached at Stott’s funeral.
 
He was appointed to the Order of the British Empire in 2003 for his “services to hymnody.”
 
Bishop Timothy died on August 12 in Cambridge and is survived by a son and two daughters. His wife Arlette, who he married in 1959, died in 2007. 

Article extracts from
 
www.dioceseofnorwich.org/timothy-dudley-smith/
 
livingchurch.org/people-and-places/obituaries/bishop-timothy-dudley-smith-1926-2024/
 
Pictured above is the Rt Rev Timothy Dudley-Smith. Picture courtesy of: timothydudley-smith.com

Please add your tributes or anecdotes of Bishop Timothy below.