INFORMATION
Erik Routley was born in Brighton, Sussex on October 31, 1917. His father was a businessman and in 1936–37, the mayor of Brighton, while his mother was a homemaker and musician. Early on, Routley studied piano and organ and developed a love of hymnody. At Lancing, Magdalen, and Mansfield Colleges, he studied theology, receiving many degrees, while also continuing to practice music.
In 1943 he was ordained to the ministry of the Congregational Union of England and Wales (CUEW), a development of the English Separatists of the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to be independent of the Church of England. The CUEW was renamed the Congregational Church of England and Wales (CCEW) in 1965 until their merger with the Presbyterian Church in 1972 which formed the Reformed Church of England and Wales (RCEW). He served Congregational churches as a minister from 1943 to 1974, including two years as president of the CCEW.