Hymn Blog - September 13, 2009

MV 1 – Let Us Build a House. What better hymn to start a new year of church life than Marty Haugen’s vision of Christian community where “all are welcome”? A Minnesotan, Haugen comes from a Lutheran tradition, and his hymns are found in Catholic and Protestant hymnbooks in North America and farther afield.

 

VU 603 – In Loving Partnership We Come. Another hymn expressing a vision of what church might be, Jim Strathdee’s words and music were first popularized within the United Church through the 1987 supplement “Songs for a Gospel People”. Strathdee, a Californian, presents an image of a justice seeking community, coming together in worship to prepare for service.

 

MV 162 – Christ, within Us Hidden. Today’s gospel lesson has Jesus asking “Who do you say that I am?” This hymn explores a number of images of encounter with Christ. Author Curtis Tufts grew up in Calgary Alberta, and is a life long member of the United Church of Canada. After first dropping out of confirmation class, he re-entered the church through a lively Hi-C youth ministry, and was a candidate for ordained ministry by the ripe age of 18. He studied at the University of Calgary and St. Andrew’s College in Saskatoon, was ordained in 1981 and has ministered in Peace River AB, Maymont SK, Calgary AB, Saltcoats SK, and Spruce Grove AB. Frustrated with the words available in the hymn books of the day, he began writing new hymn lyrics to familiar tunes in 1985. The music is by Sid Woolfrey, a graduate of Memorial University of Newfoundland, with a B.A. and B.Ed. in Psychology and English. Later, through studies in Nova Scotia, Quebec, and St. Pierre, he specialized in French. He has studied music at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick. A church organist since the age of 12, he has directed musical theatre for elementary and junior high school students, has many years of experience directing community and church choirs, and for 30 years was church organist and choir director for the Herring Neck Pastoral Charge in Newfoundland. Throughout that time, he conducted several choir workshops for all ages, focusing on the ministry of music in worship and the melding of music and liturgy. Sid also served as a member of the More Voices Development Team. He believes music is a language accessible and meaningful to all in our congregations.

 

VU 633 – Bless Now, O God, the Journey. Sylvia Dunstan wrote this text which sends us out on our journey as pilgrims on the road. The tune, THORNBURY, was written at the end of the nineteenth century by Basil Harwood, an English organist and composer, as a setting for the text “Your Hand, O God, Has Guided”, found at 274 in “Voices United.”

 

VU 884 – You Shall Go Out with Joy. Our sung response is a paraphrase of Isaiah 55:12 and come to us from the Psalter Hymnal of the Christian Reformed Church. The text was written in 1975 by Steffi G. Rubin, a New Yorker who received her  B.A. degree in English from Simpson College in San Francisco, California. At one time an artist she has been self-employed in the graphic arts field since 1980. The song's popularity is no doubt due to the Jewish-style music by Stuart Dauermann (b. Brooklyn, NY, 1944).  It was first published in Scriptures to Sing (Lillenas, 1975). The infectious tune with its syncopations and hand clapping makes it a winner among contemporary Scripture choruses.  Educated in music theory (BA) and music education (M.M.) at the Manhattan School of Music, Dauermann also completed a master's degree in missiology at Fuller Theological Seminary in 1992.