Prolific Hymn Poet Rae E. Whitney (1927-2023)

Rae E. Whitney (1927-2023), hymn poet, was the published author of over 500 hymns and four major hymn collections. Her work appears in hymnals of many Christian denominations, both in the United States and around the world, including The Hymnal 1982 and Voices Found.

When I moved to Nebraska in 2003, I was eager to meet Rae, a resident of Scottsbluff. Her work became the subject of my doctoral research, and our friendship grew through our shared interests. Over 20 years, I learned much of her life’s story.

True love brought Rae to Nebraska. She met her husband, the Rev. Clyde Whitney, on a summer European tour. Father Whitney, rector of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church (now St. Francis) in Scottsbluff, later traveled to Rae’s home in England, carrying a loaf of Communion bread baked for their wedding from wheat grown on his family’s farm. Rae and Clyde were married on New Year’s Eve, 1960.

Rae moved to Nebraska and assisted her new husband in his ministry. She was director of the Sunday school, which at that time included 80 to 100 children. During their years in Scottsbluff, the couple initiated the local observance of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. In the mid-1960s, they worked to establish the Transfiguration Retreat and Conference Center at Bayard, Nebraska.

After Clyde’s retirement, the couple served a congregation in Guatemala for a year, then returned to the United States, where Clyde worked as an interim priest at several parishes in Nebraska and Wyoming. Rae assisted him as a licensed lay reader and chalice-bearer — uncommon roles for women at that time. She was also active in women’s ministries, serving as diocesan ECW president and for two terms on the national ECW Triennial Committee.

The couple shared a love of music and hymns. Before his ordination, Clyde had worked professionally as a jazz musician. He assisted the Rev. Canon C. Winfred Douglas, the editor of The Hymnal 1940 and leader of the Evergreen Church Music Conferences in Colorado. Through this association, Rae met many of the Episcopal Church’s leaders in the fields of liturgy and church music.

Rae and Clyde traveled to the Holy Land in 1964, an experience that inspired Rae to write several hymns. Her writing continued in the 1970s, encouraged by Clyde and her friends in Nebraska. Her first collection of hymns was self-published in 1978.

Through her hymns, we learn about this remarkable woman: her care for God’s creation; her commitment to social justice; her scholarly depth; her lifelong interests in church history and ecumenism; her celebration of women’s ministries. Her texts are grounded in the life of the Christian community. Often starting with a familiar biblical image, her hymns relate the gospel to today and invite singers to join in the story.

During her lifetime, Rae Whitney witnessed remarkable changes in society and in the Episcopal Church. Her hymns were shaped by these experiences, her Christian faith, her voracious reading, and a deep need to write. Her topics span the breadth of Christian life and experience. She frequently chose to write about women: women of the Bible, women saints, and feminine images of God. Whitney’s groundbreaking texts on these subjects illuminated topics previously ignored by hymn writers. Her hymns have been set to music by leading composers of our time, and she continued to receive commissions and write new hymns well into her 90s. Until she was no longer able to travel, she was a frequent participant at conferences of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada.

Rae Whitney’s archive is housed at the Bishop Payne Library at Virginia Theological Seminary, where her collection of books and writings will be available for use in research by seminarians, hymnologists, liturgical scholars, and poets around the world.

Rae was well known through her local ministries as a Bible study leader, lector, eucharistic minister, and scholarship donor, as well as her work in service organizations. Through her hymns, she quite possibly touched the lives of more people worldwide than any other Nebraska Episcopalian. Rae was the recipient of the Bishop’s Cross in the Diocese of Nebraska in 2016 and the Dean’s Cross from Virginia Theological Seminary in 2023.

She is recognized as one of the significant hymn poets of our time, and her words will continue to shape generations of Christians. And it all started with a Nebraska love story.