新心音乐 · Album: 登上耶和华的山. Explore “The Church's One Foundation”: song information and official sources.
The pilgrim journey · Unity and love
Stone wrote this hymn in response to a fierce dispute over biblical authority in the Church of England. It is no praise song for untroubled times: the third stanza directly acknowledges attacks, internal division and heresy. Singing that stanza matters. Its acknowledgement of the church's wounds makes the hymn credible. Yet its focus always returns to the first line: the foundation is Jesus Christ, rather than the quality of our unity. First Corinthians 3:11 says the foundation is already laid and no other can be laid. The final stanza looks to fulfilment: the church struggling on earth and resting in heaven is one body. It suits denominational commemorations and church anniversaries, and is also valuable after conflict within a church.
Church anniversaries, building dedications and denominational commemorations; teaching on the church; reconciliation gatherings after conflict.