I have a tendency to automatically "translate" potentially heretical hymns into orthodox theology in my head. (For example- the "our story" of Song of the Body of Christ has never once struck me as referring to anything other than The Story Contained in Sacred Scripture.) It's essentially an ingrained form of giving texts "the benefit of the doubt."

So, I'm maybe not the BEST judge here, but... I don't see anything really heretical. The last line could POSSIBLY be taken as a reference to universalism (the [heretical] doctrine that all souls will be saved and welcomed into heaven regardless of their resistance), but I don't take it to mean that at all.

The foreign lands and empire stuff is a touch dated- you saw a lot of that in the late 19th through mid 20th centuries. Christians don't tend to talk/sing that way now. Likewise the exultation of "the Church," (in an institutional sense, as opposed to the "we are the body of Christ" stuff) sounds dated (that does not imply a judgement on my part for good or bad). But those are just literary issues, not a theological problems.

The second line of the last stanza confused me the first time I read it, and made me think it was saying exactly the opposite of what it actually said. Since I assumed my first reading had to be inaccurate, I read it again and it makes sense, though I'd have grammared it differently to make it more clear.

Until someone else tells me I shouldn't, I like it. I don't know when/where/why I would ever program it. It seems most suited to an Evening or Night Prayer Service, but the Breviary specifies hymn texts for those, which (I believe ?? ) are not switch-out-able (side note: is that correct?).

I'm hoping Kathy will throw in her opinion here. She is our resident expert on hymnodical heresism.

The burden of proof is on the accuser, not the hymn. I agree with Francis - ask them. Though I'd just avoid the complainer altogether. Or encourage them to take up stamp collecting rather than heresy hunting.

It's based on the robustness principle:

Be conservative in what you send, liberal in what you accept.

Let this be writtern as my epitaph: She was our resident expert on hymnodical heresism. Many will thus mourn my passing, I am sure.

1) I love this hymn. Behest! Sway! And if you didn't know what those words meant before, you do now. O frabjous day!

2) If it isn't an office hymn it should be. This is just what office hymns are like.

3) The last line isn't universalist, because every knee shall bend, including those under the earth.

4) And yet--I quibble with the idea that people who call out "heresy!" must establish their claim precisely before they are considered credible. The sense of the faithful is much better at hearing an "off" note in doctrine than at articulating fine theological distinctions.

5) I think almost every hymn in the current breviary can be taken as an option 4.

If there were heresy in it, some theologian would have to point out to me in just what manner it is disguised cleverly.
This is a perfectly good evening hymn, well-known in Anglican circles and sung often at Evensong (Solemn or not Solemn).
While the allusions to far-flung lands brings a certain benevelant Victorian imperialism to mind, we can just as well take these references as charitable concern for those of every nation and race who inhabit this wondrous terrestrial ball.
If anyone thought there was heresy in it I should think that he or she could as well
make a sow's ear out of a silk purse.

Thank you all for your comments!
I think this objection had more to do with taste.

@ Randolph Nichols

here is a descant to ST CLEMENT recorded at Church of the Advent by a choir you once conducted
http://hymndescants.org/hymn-descants/st-clement