Amazing Grace

The story of this hymn

John Newton had captained slave ships; a near-shipwreck in 1748 began a slow conversion that eventually made him curate of Olney and, late in life, a voice against the trade he once served. He wrote these verses for his New Year's sermon of 1773, published in Olney Hymns in 1779. The final verse most people know — 'When we've been there ten thousand years' — was added by later American congregations, which is also where the words met their tune, 'New Britain'.

Where it sits in the service

The one hymn nearly everyone can sing without a sheet, which makes it especially good at the graveside, where hymn books are awkward — though it serves just as well as the opening hymn. Print all the verses anyway: mourners know the first verse by heart and then falter, and the promise they most need is in the third — 'and grace will lead me home.'

In the programme, list it in the order of service as “Hymn — Amazing Grace” with the leader or choir named beside it.

How it is actually sung

The most widely known hymn in the English language and the safest choice at any service where the congregation is mixed or largely unchurched — people who have not been in a church for thirty years will still sing it. Four verses is standard and the whole room will manage them. It also works unaccompanied, which matters at a graveside where there is no instrument.

Printing the words

Public domain. Print all four verses; guests who cannot sing along to anything else will sing this, and the words in front of them make the difference at the graveside.

This is practical guidance rather than legal advice. Reproduction rights vary by territory, by hymnal edition and by the licence your church holds — the church office is the right place to ask, and they answer this question often.