No contemporary hymnwriter has participated as centrally in the events shaping the life of the Christian churches in the past four decades. From childhood under anti-Nazi occupation in Holland to poet of the Christian anti-war movement, from British pastor writing hymns to send his Sunday parish into their worldly life, to Geneva-based ecumenical officer helping Asian Christians create an English version for their indigenous new songs of faith, to lyricist for the Hannover 2000 World Fair.