Christopher L. Webber
1932—
Image courtesy of C.L.W.
CHRISTOPHER LAWRENCE WEBBER was born 5 January 1932 in Cuba, New York, son of the Rev. Roy Lawrence Webber and Hortense Marie Basquin. He graduated from South Kent School (South Kent, CT) in 1949, Princeton University in 1953, and General Theological Seminary (NYC) in 1956. After graduating from GTS, he became a fellow and tutor there, then in 1957 took his first pastorate at the Church of the Ascension (Brooklyn, NY). On 7 April 1958, he married Margaret Elisabeth “Peg” Rose, daughter of the dean of GTS, the Very Rev. Lawrence Rose, and his wife Caroline B. Averill, in a ceremony held in the Chapel of the Good Shepherd on the campus of GTS. They had four children together.
In 1960, Webber became rector of Christ Church in Lynbrook, Long Island, where he “met regularly with civic leaders in an effort to resolve tensions over the issue of de facto segregation [and] led a successful drive for a new parish hall.”[1] In 1966, he became rector of St. Alban’s Church in Tokyo, Japan, following somewhat in the footsteps of his father-in-law, who had been chaplain at Holy Trinity Church in Tokyo when Margaret was born (17 Nov. 1935). He served there for six years while also leading the Fellowship of St. Alban (a post-graduate training program) before returning to the States to be rector of Christ Church in Bronxville, NY, in December 1972. He remained there for 22 years, establishing a counseling center and a community home for people with mental disabilities, serving as a trustee for GTS and for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and serving on the board of the Living Church Foundation.
In 1986, Webber published his first major work, A New Metrical Psalter, which was intended to reflect the translations of the Psalms in the new Episcopal Book of Common Prayer (1979). Many of those paraphrases were adopted into The Presbyterian Hymnal (1990), his first foray into major denominational hymnals. Also in the late 1980s, Webber began a long career of writing pastorally on other subjects.
In 1994, he retired to Connecticut, but he continued to minister as a part-time vicar for Christ Church in Canaan, and he helped to establish the Chapel of All Saints in Cornwall. He and Margaret purchased thirty acres of land and built a home on it, where they collected and processed maple syrup, tended a garden and an orchard, and Margaret worked as a travel consultant. His metrical psalter was revised in 2000 to correspond with the Revised Common Lectionary, and that year he released Hymns from the Bible 2000, a collection of Scripture paraphrases based on the RCL, many of which were later licensed for the Reformed publication Singing the New Testament (2008). A series of children’s books followed, which were illustrated editions of his paraphrases of Psalms 104, 67, and 23 (2002–2004), then Christian Psalms for Worship and Prayer (2009), which contained new psalms based on the works of other writers, such as Saint Augustine, Julien of Norwich, Dorothy Day, and Oscar Romero.
After twenty years of managing the property in Connecticut, they relocated once more to the west coast, settling in San Francisco, where Rev. Webber has served a pastoral associate at All Saints’ Episcopal Church in the Haight. On 27 October 2017, Christopher lost his beloved wife, Margaret. He continues to write, even into his nineties, his most recent work being Songs of Justice, Peace, and Love: The Sharon Hymnal (2022).
by CHRIS FENNER
for Hymnology Archive
2 December 2022
“Christ Church finds new rector,” Herald Statesman (Yonkers, NY), p. 3.
Featured Hymns:
Lord, why have you forsaken me? (Psalm 22)
Official Site:
Collections of Hymns & Psalms:
A New Metrical Psalter (1986)
Hymns from the Bible 2000 (2000)
Praise the Lord, My Soul: Psalm 104 for Children (2002)
Shout for Joy and Sing! Psalm 67 for Children (2003)
The Lord Is My Shepherd: Psalm 23 for Children (2004)
Christian Psalms for Worship and Prayer (2009)
Songs of Justice, Peace, and Love: The Sharon Hymnal (2022)
Other Published Works:
A Vestry Handbook (1988)
Meditations on Matthew (1989)
Planning Your Marriage Service (1992)
The Art of the Homily (1992)
Reinventing Marriage (1994)
Forward Day by Day: February through April Meditations (1995)
A User’s Guide to the Book of Common Prayer: The Holy Eucharist Rites I and II (1997)
A User’s Guide to the Book of Common Prayer: Morning Prayer and Baptism (1997)
Finding Home (1997)
The Light of Glory: Readings from John Donne for Lent and Easter Week (1998)
Welcome to the Episcopal Church (1999)
A Traveler’s Prayer Book (1999)
Celebrating the Saints (2001), with Robert Atwater
Lutherans and Episcopalians Together (2001), with G. Scott Cady
A Book of Vigils (2002)
Love Came Down (2002)
Welcome to Sunday (2003)
A Time to Turn: Lenten Readings (2004)
Give us Grace: An Anthology of Anglican Prayer (2004)
A User’s Guide to Holy Baptism and Confirmation (2005)
A User’s Guide to the Daily Offices (2005)
Advent Readings from Evelyn Underhill (2006)
A Year with American Saints (2006)
An American Prayer Book (2008)
Welcome to Christian Faith (2011)
American to the Backbone (2011)
The Beowulf Trilogy (2012)
Give Me Liberty: Speeches and Speakers that Shaped American History (2014)
Dear Friends: Letters of St. Paul to Christians in America (2014)
The Gift of New Hope (2015)
The Silence of Calvary (2021)