They Cast Their Nets in Galilee

The poem His Peace appeared in the 1924 book Enzio's Kingdom and Other Poems by William Alexander Percy.
The last four verses of the poem became the hymn They Cast Their Nets in Galilee, and entered the Hymnal 1940 with the tune Georgetown, composed by David McK. Williams in 1941. The tune received its name out of friendship for F. Bland Tucker, who was then rector of St. John's Church, Georgetown Parish, D.C.

His Peace

I love to think of them at dawn
Beneath the frail pink sky,
Casting their nets in Galilee
And fish-hawks circling by.

Casting their nets in Galilee
Just off the hills of brown
Such happy, simple fisherfolk
Before the Lord came down.

Contented, peaceful fishermen,
Before they ever knew
The peace of God that filled their hearts
Brimful and broke them too.

Young John who trimmed the flapping sail
Homeless in Patmos died.
Peter, who hauled the teeming net,
Head down was crucified.

The peace of God, it is no peace,
But strife sowed in the sod.
Yet brothers pray for but one thing --
The marvelous peace of God!

The Choir and Congregation of Trinity Church,
Wall Street.

The Sea of Galilee
Ektachrome Photograph from
The Mount of Beatitudes

The Chapel of the Carpenter, St John's Church, Georgetown, D.C.
In loving memory of Bea and Gene Carland