Hymn #556: God, Who Stretched the Spangled Heavens

Catherine Arnott Cameron (b. 1927) wrote this text in 1967 over a period of months while she was experiencing a renewed sense of creativity and growth in her life. She wrote the hymn to reflect the human community’s obligation to be sure that its creativity complements that of God.

Catherine Cameron was born in St. John, New Brunswick, Canada, the daughter of Presbyterian minister John Sutherland Bonnell. She has written poetry since childhood, and her hymns have appeared in a number of major American hymnals. She is now a U.S. citizen.

William Moore (19^th century) included HOLY MANNA and seventeen other original tunes in his shape-note collection, Columbian Harmony, (1825). This four-part harmonization most likely dates from the twentieth century.

William Moore compiled a four-shape shape-note tunebook called The Columbian Harmony in Wilson County, Tennessee, in 1825, although it was published in Cincinnati, Ohio. Shape-note tunebooks provided an easy way for singers to learn tune by providing different shapes for various notes.