The Most Famous New Year’s Day Hymn, ‘Amazing Grace,’ Celebrate 250 Years

Anglican priest and former slave ship captain John Newton’s hymn, ‘Amazing Grace,’ It has been sung over 10 million times in 250 years.

The pastor of a large rural congregation was preparing his New Year’s Day sermon, based on the Old Testament text, 1 Chronicles 17:16-17. He wrote a hymn as a way to accompany his message, something he did often. He didn’t know that the simple hymn he wrote would become a beloved hymn throughout the world for 250 years. “Amazing Grace.”

Sunday, January 1, 2023 marks the 250th anniversary this hymn was written by Rev. John Newton was an Anglican priest who was also a former captain on slave ships. He later joined William Wilberforce, and helped abolish slavery in Britain. 

Newton wrote “Amazing Grace” for his Anglican congregation — St. Peter and Paul Church in Olney Buckinghamshire, England — to sing on New Year’s Day, Jan. 1, 1773. The life of a wicked seafaring blasphemer who was saved from a terrible storm took a dramatic twist when he was reunited with King David. “Who am I, O Lord God…that you have brought me thus far?”

Amazing grace, the sound is so sweet
This saved me, a wretch like myself!
I once was lost but now I’m found,
Was blind before I saw.

“Amazing Grace” This hymn is a praise to God for his mercy, which eclipsed Newton’s wretched and heathenish life on the seas. “I can see no reason why the Lord singled me out for mercy…unless it was to show, by one astonishing instance, that with him ‘nothing is impossible’” Newton wrote his true story about his life. 

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed

“Amazing Grace” has a universal appeal. It has been sung an estimated more than 10 million times and recorded on more than 7,000 albums, according to Newton biographer Jonathan Aitken. It’This song has been sung many times by the U.S. president, folk musicians, rock and rolling stars, and many congregations all around the world.

It was during the Covid lockdowns recorded by 50 countries’ singers with the message “the amazing grace and love of Jesus is stronger than life and death itself.”  Translated into more than 50 languages, including InuitIt was even played by NASA Astronaut Kjell Lundgren on the bagpipes at the International Space Station

The Olney Hymnbook published the hymn in 1779. Public domain.

“Amazing Grace” It was the topic of the 2006 film The musical starred Albert Finney in the role of Newton. It was also featured on Broadway’s 2015 musical of the name. Uncle Tom sang it in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s abolitionist book, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”  

Judy Collins, folk singer said The song is the “power to transform and heal,” Recorded a soulful version of “Amazing Grace” It spent 67 weeks on the pop charts in the United States, and in the United Kingdom.