Holy Scripture Lutheran Church

"Baptized in Water" was written in 1981 by Michael Saward at the Ealing Vicarage in London. Saward has held a host of official positions in the Anglican church, made hundreds of radio and television appearances, authored booklets and guides for teenagers and missionaries, newspaper articles, and numerous other items. He served several years as the chairman of the text committee for "Hymns for Today's Church," where it was decided a new baptism hymn was needed, driving his writing of "Baptized in Water." Saward described himself as an "author, journalist, hymn-writer, broadcaster, lecturer, and amateur cricketer."

The text for Jerusalem the Golden was taken from a nearly 3000 line poem written by the monk Bernard of Cluny in 1145. His original poem, "De Contemptu Mundi," is a bitter, detailed, satiric lamentation over the wickedness of the world and the transitoriness of life on earth, contrasted with descriptions of the glories of heaven. The poem begins, "These are the last days, the worst of times: let us keep watch. Behold the menacing arrival of the supreme Judge. He is coming, he is coming to end evil, crown the just, reward the right, set the worried free, and give the skies."