Each week, you may find information here about the music in the traditional worship services at First United Methodist Church in Lewisville, Texas. Some of this information is original; most of it is copied from other websites such as Wikipedia, GBOD, and hymnary.org. It is my hope that this information will enhance your understanding and enrich your worship experience.
About the Organ Music:
He the Banquet Spreads Before Us - James Mansfield
(c.1995, Lorenz Publishing)
"He the banquet spreads before us" is a line from the communion hymn "Jesus Spreads His Banner o'er Us," published in the A.M.E. Zion Hymnal. It emphasizes the Eucharist as a banquet of "mystic flesh and blood," providing spiritual food. The imagery draws from Song of Solomon 2:4 and themes of Holy Thursday and divine sacrifice. The text is rooted in the Last Supper, the Wedding Banquet parable in Luke 14, and the Messianic banquet prophesied in Isaiah.
This Communion hymn (originally entitled “The Communion”) was written in 1836. Roswell Park, D.D. (1807-1869) of the Protestant Episcopal Church, was educated at Union College and West Point. Previous to receiving Holy Orders he was in the army, and also held the appointment of Professor of Chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania. He was ordained in 1843, was President of Racine College, Wisconsin (1852-59), Chancellor of the same College (1858-63); and Principal of a school in Chicago from 1863 to his death. He published Sketch of West Point, 1840; Pantology, 1841; Handbook for European Travel, 1853; and Poems, 1836. His best known hymn is for Holy Communion. It begins "Jesus spreads His banner o'er us," and was published in his Poems, 1836.
The original first stanza is generally omitted. It states:
While the sons of earth retiring, From the sacred temple roam;
Lord, Thy light and love desiring, To Thine altar fain we come.
Children of our heavenly Father, Friends and brethren we would be;
While we round Thy table gather, May our hearts be one in Thee.
The author’s thought was that this was to be the signal for any unsaved present (or backslidden believers perhaps) to leave–“the sons of earth retiring”–so that the more spiritual folks could participate in the Lord’s Supper. Park had in mind those churches where the members of the congregation not wishing to partake of the Lord’s Supper are given an opportunity to retire before the invitation is extended”. Some churches actually end the worship service, Benediction and all. After that, some leave, and others stay for Communion. Of course, this is never practiced in the United Methodist church where we have always had an open table and believed communion and grace are open to all.
The tune, AUTUMN, is adapted from F-H Barthélemon’s piece “Durandarte and Belerma: A Pathetic Scotch Ballad” (1797). Some editors describe it as "adapted from Psalm xlii in the Genevan Psalter, 1551", referring to the similarity between this tune and FREU DICH SEHR.
Children of our heavenly Father, Friends and brethren we would be;
While we round Thy table gather, May our hearts be one in Thee.
Jesus spreads his banner o’er us, Cheers our famished souls with food;
He the banquet spreads before us, Symbols of His flesh and blood.
Precious banquet, bread of heaven, Wine of gladness, flowing free;
May we taste it, kindly given, In remembrance, Lord, of Thee.
In Thy trial and rejection, In Thy suff’rings on the tree,
In Thy glorious resurrection, May we, Lord, remember Thee.
James Mansfield (1927–2018) was born in Toronto, Canada. He earned a B.M. in Theory/Piano from Cornell College (1949; Mt. Vernon, Iowa) and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Music Composition from the University of Iowa (1950, 1961). He served as professor at two universities (including the University of Guam) before joining The Lorenz Corporation as an editor and staff composer in 1981. Mansfield retired from the Lorenz editorial staff in 1992. He also wrote a number of concert music works and several novels. In his many years of association with Lorenz, Mansfield published numerous compositions and arrangements both with his own name and using several pen names, including Thomas Chesterton, Brian Glyncannon, Humphrey Turner, Lucy Ann Warringer, Charity Boyles, Mercy Bartlett, Thomas Bliss, John Scriveyner, and Joseph Prentiss.
Allegro from Organ Concerto No. 13, in F - G. F. Handel
Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. Handel received his training in Halle and worked as a composer in Hamburg and Italy before settling in London in 1712, where he spent the bulk of his career and became a naturalised British subject in 1727. He was strongly influenced both by the middle-German polyphonic choral tradition and by composers of the Italian Baroque. In turn, Handel's music forms one of the peaks of the "high baroque" style, bringing Italian opera to its highest development, creating the genres of English oratorio and organ concerto, and introducing a new style into English church music. He is consistently recognized as one of the greatest composers of his age.
Early in his life Handel is reported to have attended the Gymnasium in Halle, where the headmaster, Johann Praetorius, was reputed to be an ardent musician. He was withdrawn from school by his father; Handel’s father as implacably opposed to any musical education. His father was "alarmed" at Handel's very early propensity for music, took every measure to oppose it, including forbidding any musical instrument in the house and preventing Handel from going to any house where they might be found. This did nothing to dampen young Handel's inclination; in fact, it did the reverse. Handel managed to get a little clavichord hidden in an attic room, where he constantly stole when the family was asleep. Sometime between the ages of seven and nine, Handel accompanied his father to Weissenfels, where he came under the notice of one whom Handel thereafter always regarded throughout life as his benefactor, Duke Johann Adolf I. Somehow Handel made his way to the court organ in the palace chapel of the Holy Trinity, where he surprised everyone with his playing. Overhearing this performance and noting the youth of the performer, the Duke, whose suggestions were not to be disregarded, recommended that Handel be given musical instruction. Handel's father engaged the organist at the Halle parish church, the young Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, to instruct Handel. Zachow would be the only organ teacher that Handel ever had.
Handel matriculated at the University of Halle in 1702. That university had only recently been founded. In 1694, the Elector of Brandenburg Frederick III (later Prussian King Frederick I) created the school, largely to provide a lecture forum for the jurist Christian Thomasius who had been expelled from Leipzig for his liberal views. Thomasius was an intellectual and academic crusader, who was the first German academic to lecture in German and also denounced witch trials. Thomasius instilled in Handel a respect for the dignity and freedom of man's mind and the solemn majesty of the law, principles that drew him to and kept him in England for half a century. Handel also studied with theologian and professor of Oriental languages August Hermann Francke, who was particularly solicitous of children, particularly orphans. The orphanage he founded became a model for Germany, and undoubtedly influenced Handel's own charitable impulse, when he assigned the rights of Messiah to London's Foundling Hospital. Though Lutheran, Handel accepted the position of organist at the Calvinist Cathedral in Halle.
In 1706, Handel travelled to Italy at the invitation of Ferdinando de' Medici. Ferdinando, who had a keen interest in opera, was trying to make Florence Italy's musical capital by attracting the leading talents of his day. In Italy, Handel met librettist Antonio Salvi, with whom he later collaborated. Rodrigo, his first all-Italian opera, was produced in the Cocomero theatre in Florence in 1707. Agrippina was first produced in 1709 at Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo in Venice, owned by the Grimanis. The opera, with a libretto by Cardinal Vincenzo Grimani, ran for 27 nights successively. The audience, thunderstruck with the grandeur and sublimity of his style, applauded for Il caro Sassone ("the dear Saxon" – referring to Handel's German origins).
Handel decided to settle permanently in England in 1712. He received a yearly income of £200 from Queen Anne after composing for her the Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate, first performed in 1713. Handel started three commercial opera companies to supply the English nobility with Italian opera. In 1737, he had a physical breakdown, changed direction creatively, and addressed the middle class and made a transition to English choral works. After his success with Messiah (1742), he never composed an Italian opera again. His orchestral Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks remain steadfastly popular. One of his four coronation anthems, Zadok the Priest, has been performed at every British coronation since 1727. Almost blind, he died in 1759, a respected and rich man, and was given a state funeral at Westminster Abbey. n the Lutheran Calendar of Saints Handel and Bach share the date July 28 with Heinrich Schütz, and Handel and Bach are commemorated in the calendar of saints prepared by the Order of Saint Luke for the use of the United Methodist Church.
Handel's compositions include 42 operas, 25 oratorios, more than 120 cantatas, trios and duets, numerous arias, odes and serenatas, solo and trio sonatas, 18 concerti grossi, and 12 organ concertos. His most famous work, the oratorio Messiah with its "Hallelujah" chorus, is among the most popular works in choral music and has become the centerpiece of the Christmas season. The Lobkowicz Palace in Prague holds Mozart's copy of Messiah, complete with handwritten annotations. Among the works with opus numbers published and popularized in his lifetime are the Organ concertos Op. 4 and Op. 7, together with the Opus 3 and Opus 6 Concerti grossi; the latter incorporates an earlier organ concerto The Cuckoo and the Nightingale in which birdsong is imitated in the upper registers of the organ. Also notable are his 16 keyboard suites, especially The Harmonious Blacksmith.
The Cuckoo and the Nightingale, HWV 295, is an organ concerto in four movements by George Frideric Handel. The second movement uses bird song motifs corresponding to the birds of the title. The concerto premiered in London in 1739 as an interlude during the first performance of the composer's oratorio Israel in Egypt. Handel wrote for a chamber organ without pedals and a small Baroque orchestra. As well as strings, the orchestra has oboes and a continuo section. Handel was a gifted organist, and his organ concertos were a "draw" to his oratorios. Handel's organ playing supplied an element of virtuosity which was probably missing from the singing because his oratorios were written for less highly trained singers than the operas. We know that he would have improvised at the organ to some extent. As he got older and his eyesight deteriorated, he was less motivated to write the organ part in full. The scores of his organ concertos therefore came to contain more "ad libitum" bars for the soloist to improvise. In the case of the Cuckoo and the Nightingale the third movement is "organo ad libitum". Organists differ in their approach to this movement with George Malcolm's recording taking about a minute and Richard Egarr about three. Handel had already published a set of organ concertos, Op. 4, which when it appeared in 1738 was the first ever collection of keyboard concertos. The same publisher, John Walsh, brought out "The Cuckoo and the Nightingale" in 1740 as part of a second set (which bears no opus number). Later editions include that of the Händel-Gesellschaft, which published the concerto in 1894 as part of the composer's complete works. Handel reworked some of the material, including the bird calls, as a concerto grosso (No. 9, HWV 327) which Walsh published as one of a set of twelve.
About the Piano Music:
Soul, Adorn Yourself with Gladness - Nancy Raabe
(c.2016, Augsburg Fortress)
"Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele" ("Deck thyself, my soul, with gladness", literally: Adorn yourself, O dear soul) is a Lutheran hymn in German, with lyrics by Johann Franck and a melody by Johann Crüger from 1649. It is a song for Lutheran Communion, and first appeared in 1649 in Crüger's hymnal Geistliche Kirchen-Melodien, later also in the 1653 edition of his Praxis pietatis melica. The hymn was often set to music to be played or sung under communion. A translation by Catherine Winkworth, "Deck thyself, my soul, with gladness" of 1858, appears in 100 hymnals. The hymn is a song for Abendmahl, the Lutheran Communion. The hymn lyrics were written in nine stanzas by Johann Franck, who was not a minister but a politician and mayor, between 1646 and 1653. Franck compared the unity between Jesus and a Christian receiving communion to the closeness of bridegroom and bride. With a melody by Johann Crüger from 1649, the song appeared first in Crüger's hymnal Geistliche Kirchen-Melodien (Sacred church melodies) of 1649, and was included, now in nine stanzas in his Praxis pietatis melica in the 1653 edition.
Soul, adorn yourself with gladness, leave the gloomy haunts of sadness;
come into the daylight's splendour, there with joy thy praises render
unto him whose grace unbounded hath this wondrous banquet founded:
high o'er all the heavens he reigneth, yet to dwell with thee he deigneth.
Hasten as a bride to meet Him, And with loving rev'rence greet Him.
for with words of life immortal He is knocking at your portal.
Open wide the gates before Him, Saying, as you there adore Him:
Grant, Lord, that I now receive You, That I nevermore will leave You.
He who craves a precious treasure Neither cost nor pain will measure;
But the priceless gifts of heaven God to us has freely given.
Though the wealth of earth were proffered, None could buy the gifts here offered:
Christ's true body, for you riven, And His blood, for you once given.
Now I sink before thee lowly, filled with joy most deep and holy,
as with trembling awe and wonder on thy mighty works I ponder:
how, by mystery surrounded, depth no mortal ever sounded,
none may dare to pierce unbidden secrets that with thee are hidden.
Sun, who all my life dost brighten, light, who dost my soul enlighten,
joy, the sweetest heart e'er knoweth, fount, whence all my being floweth,
at thy feet I cry, my Maker, let me be a fit partaker
of this blessed food from heaven, for our good, thy glory, given.
Jesus, Bread of Life, I pray thee, let me gladly here obey thee;
never to my hurt invited, be thy love with love requited:
from this banquet let me measure, Lord, how vast and deep its treasure;
through the gifts thou here dost give me, as thy guest in heaven receive me.
Jesus, sun of life, my splendor, Jesus, friend of friends, most tender,
Jesus, joy of my desiring, Fount of life, my soul inspiring:
At Your feet I cry, my maker, Let me be a fit partaker
Of this blessèd food from heaven, For our good, Your glory, given.
Lord, by love and mercy driven, You once left Your throne in heaven
On the cross for me to languish And to die in bitter anguish.
To forego all joy and gladness And to shed Your blood in sadness.
By this blood redeemed and living, Lord, I praise You with thanksgiving.
Nancy M. Raabe (b. 1954), has been the pastor at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Marshall WI, since 2018. Raabe is an energetic and creative leader of Christian worship. She specializes in incorporating music and the liturgical arts into worship services. She is known as an empathetic servant leader, an effective preacher, and as a thoughtful teacher for those of all ages. Pastor Raabe has been successful in developing sound mission-based plans so that her congregations can grow and thrive in a sustainable manner. Further, Nancy strives to involve her congregation in the activities of the surrounding community. Pastor Raabe is an author, worship leader, and composer of church music.
In November 2015, Nancy Raabe received the Award of the Concordia Historical Institute recognizing the importance of her book, Carl Schalk: A Life in Song, in carrying forward the legacy of the Lutheran Church in this country. Pastor Raabe's original arrangement of I Dream A World was a finalist for first prize at the 2010 Ithaca College Choral Composition Festival. Nancy M Raabe was the Communications chair of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians. She was the founding editor of the Association's newsletter In Tempo, in which appeared her column Prairie View.
About the Choral Music:
My Song in the Night - Paul Christiansen
(c.1967, Schmitt, Hall & McCreary Company)
My Song in the Night is a hauntingly beautiful southern folk hymn. Asaph's Psalm 77 contains this troubled plea, "Let me remember my song in the night. As he wrote, Asaph's life seemed to be nothing but night, gloom and trouble. God seemed deaf to his cries. His hand was weary, his soul discomforted. Unable to sleep he finally pleaded, "Let me remember my song in the night.” In that sense, it is so important to be able to remember and sing to yourself the strong and comforting hymns of corporate worship. Their message and the music that carries them are so important in those dark, dark nights in our lives. Asaph's prayer is not unfamiliar to many of us.
This folk song, based upon Asaph's cry in the night is one to remember when those dark nights come. It speaks of affliction, deserts and night. Yet in the midst of those dark nights, I can call to Jesus, my soul's delight and be comforted. Jesus is my Savior, my song in the night.
Paul Joseph Christiansen (1914-1997) was an American choral conductor and composer. As the youngest son of F. Melius Christiansen, he was brought up into the Lutheran Choral Tradition and quickly developed his own style of conducting and composing that furthered the tradition started by his father. He spent the bulk of his career developing The Concordia Choir and conducted the choir from 1937-1986. He is also credited with establishing the Concordia Christmas Concert which is seen yearly by more than 30,000 people.
O Jesus, my Savior, my song in the night
Come to us with Thy tender love, my souls’ delight,
Unto Thee O Lord in affliction I call,
My comfort by day and my song In the night.
O why should I wander an alien from Thee,
Or cry in the desert Thy face to see,
My comfort and joy, my souls’ delight,
O Jesus my Savior, my song in the night.
My song in the night, my song in the night, in the night.
O Jesus my Savior, my song in the night,
Come to us with thy tender love, my soul’’s delight,
My comfort and joy, my soul’s delight,
O Jesus, my Savior, my song in the night.
My song in the night, my song, my comfort and joy,
my souls’ delight, O Jesus my Savior, my song in the night.
About the Hymns:
Blessed Jesus, at Thy Word
Essentially a prayer asking for illumination by the Holy Spirit as the Christian community gathers around the Lord's Word, "Blessed Jesus" is a pre-sermon hymn by Tobias Clausnitzer (1619-1684). It was first published in the Altdorffisches Gesang-Buchlein (1663) and first attributed to Clausnitzer in the Nüremberg, Germany, Gesangbuch (1676). Catherine Winkworth translated the text and published it in English in her Lyra Germanica (2nd series, 1858).
Clausnitzer graduated from the University of Leipzig and became a chaplain in the Swedish army. He preached two sermons at memorable occasions: when Queen Christina ascended the Swedish throne in 1645 and when the Peace of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years War, was celebrated in 1648. Clausnitzer became a pastor in Weiden in 1648, where he remained until his death.
The tune was written by Johann Rudolph Ahle (1625-1673), who was born in Mühlhausen, Thuringia. In 1648 he published the Compendium per tenellis, a theoretical treatise on choral singing which was reprinted several times during his lifetime and for a last time 50 years later by his son Johann Georg. In 1654 Ahle assumed the post of organist at the Church of St. Blasen/Blasius in Mühlhausen. Much of his compositional output consists of sacred choral and vocal works, instrumental music, and organ music. He wrote over 400 sacred arias, from which hymn tunes have been adapted.
Blessed Jesus, at your word we are gathered all to hear you.
Let our hearts and souls be stirred now to seek and love and fear you.
By your gospel pure and holy, teach us, Lord, to love you solely.
All our knowledge, sense, and sight lie in deepest darkness shrouded,
till Your Spirit breaks our night with Your beams of truth unclouded.
You alone to God can win us; You must work all good within us.
Glorious Lord, yourself impart; Light of Light, from God proceeding,
open lips and ears and heart; help us by Your Spirit's leading.
Hear the cry Your church now raises; Lord, accept our prayers and praises.
Be Thou My Vision
(c.1989, United Methodist Publishing House, c.1964, Abingdon Press)
"Be Thou My Vision" (Old Irish: Rop tú mo baile or Rob tú mo bhoile) is a traditional hymn from Ireland. The most well known English version, with some minor variations, was translated by Eleanor Hull and published in 1912. In 1919, the lyrics were set to the tune of the Irish folk tune "Slane", to which the song is sung to this day, both in English and Irish. The song dates from at least the eighth century, though the text dates to the sixth-century.
The original Old Irish text, "Rop tú mo Baile" is often attributed to Saint Dallán Forgaill in the 6th century. Eochaid Mac Colla (c. 530 – 598), better known as Saint Dallan or Dallán Forgaill (Old Irish: Dallán Forchella; Latin: Dallanus Forcellius), was an early Christian Irish poet whose writings include the "Amra Choluim Chille" ("Elegy of Saint Columba") and "Rop Tú Mo Baile" ("Be Thou My Vision"). Saint Dallan was Chief Ollam of Ireland (similar to poet laureate), as well as a scholar of Latin scriptural learning. He helped to reform the Bardic Order at the Convention of Drumceat. He reputedly wrote Amra Choluim Chille, which he completed shortly after the death of Saint Columba in 597, because Columba had successfully saved poets from expulsion from Ireland at the assembly of Druim Cett in 575. The “Amra Choluim Chille,” is the earliest Irish poem that can be dated.
"Rop tú mo Baile" had been a part of Irish monastic tradition for centuries before its setting to music. The Irish text was translated into literal prose by Irish scholar Mary Elizabeth Byrne (1880-1931), a Dublin native, and then published in Eriú, the journal of the School of Irish Learning, in 1905. Byrne was also known for her academic publications, including Old and Mid-Irish Dictionary, Dictionary of the Irish Language, and a treatise, England in the Age of Chaucer.
It is at this point that Eleanor Hull (1860-1935) enters the story. Born in Manchester, England, she was the founder of the Irish Text Society and president of the Irish Literary Society of London. Hull versified the text and it was published in her Poem Book of the Gael (1912).
Following the original publication in Ireland, the hymn was included in a number of British hymnals. After World War II, the hymn came to the attention of hymnal editors in the U.S. and it has become a standard hymn in most hymnals today.
Irish liturgy and ritual scholar Helen Phelan, a lecturer at the University of Limerick, points out how the language of this hymn is drawn from traditional Irish culture: "One of the essential characteristics of the text is the use of 'heroic' imagery to describe God. This was very typical of medieval Irish poetry, which cast God as the 'chieftain' or 'High King' (Ard Ri) who provided protection to his people or clan. The lorica is one of the most popular forms of this kind of protection prayer and is very prevalent in texts of this period." The original chieftain language of the "High King of heaven" has given way to the more inclusive "Great God" in the UM Hymnal.
When Hull's versification was paired with the lovely traditional Irish tune SLANE in The Irish Church Hymnal in 1919, its popularity was sealed. The folk melody was taken from a non-liturgical source, Patrick Weston Joyce's Old Irish Folk Music and Songs: A Collection of 842 Airs and Songs hitherto unpublished (1909). "Most 'traditional' Irish religious songs are non-liturgical," says Dr. Phelan. "There is a longstanding practice of 'editorial weddings' in Irish liturgical music, where traditional tunes were wedded to more liturgically appropriate texts. This is a very good example of this practice.” The tune name SLANE is drawn from deep in Irish history. It was on Slane Hill in County Meath around 433 CE that St. Patrick lit candles on Easter Eve, defying a decree by High King Logaire of Tara that no one could light a fire before the king signaled the beginning of the pagan spring festival by lighting a fire on Tara Hill. King Logaire was so impressed by Patrick's devotion that, despite his defiance, he was permitted to continue his work as Ireland's first Christian missionary.
Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art;
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.
Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.
Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tow’r:
Raise Thou me heav’nward, O Pow’r of my pow’r.
Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.
High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heav’n’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.
O Lord, Hear My Prayer
(c.1984, Les Presses de Taize, admin by GIA Publications)
Jacques Berthier (1923-1994) was a French composer of liturgical music, best known for writing much of the music used at Taizé. Berthier was born in Auxerre, Burgundy; both of his parents were musicians. His father Paul was the kapellmeister and organist at the Auxerre Cathedral and his mother Geneviève Parquin was a composer. Learning first from his parents, Berthier was trained in music at the École César Franck in Paris. In 1955, Berthier was first asked to compose music for the Taizé Community, which was then just a monastic community of twenty brothers. Six years later he became organist at the Church of the Jesuits in Paris, Saint-Ignace, where he worked until his death. In 1975, Berthier was again asked to compose for Taizé, this time for chants to be sung by the increasing numbers of young people coming to worship there. Over nearly twenty years, Berthier built up a body of church music that has been utilized around the world. In 2006, the Jubilate Deo Award was granted to him posthumously.
In more than twenty years, Berthier left an important corpus (232 songs in 20 different languages) in wide use today by other communities and around the world. He is also the author of Masses for organ, a cantata in the form of the cross and a cantata for Saint Cecilia. In total, he wrote over 1,500 pieces of work.
Berthier wrote the text and music of “O Lord, Hear My Prayer” in 1991. The text is adapted from Psalm 102: 1-2.
O Lord, hear my prayer. O Lord, hear my prayer. When I call, answer me.
O Lord, hear my prayer. O Lord, hear my prayer. Come and listen to me.
The Spirit Sends Us Forth to Serve
(c.1993, Delores Dufner, adm. OCP Pub)
“Let us bring to life and liturgy the gifts that differ . . . for the building up of our sisters and brothers into the one Body of Christ,” proclaims Delores Dufner in her introduction to her hymn collection, Sing a New Church. She actively motivates us in this collection to “Sing a new church into being, one in faith and love and praise.” Sister Dufner (b. 1939), a member of St. Benedict’s Monastery in St. Joseph, Minn., has published over 155 hymns in her lifetime, much to the acclaim of Alan Hommerding who named her the foremost female Roman Catholic hymn text writer in the United States in the October 2000 issue of the journal, The Hymn.
Sr. Dufner holds master’s degrees in liturgical music and liturgical studies and is a very active member of her monastery as well as the Diocese of St. Cloud, Minn. She has received several awards throughout her lifetime for her contributions to liturgy and music following Vatican II (1962-1965), from institutions such as St. Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Ind., and the University of Notre Dame. Her work has taken her to various conventions, hymn festivals and meetings throughout the United States and the world. Music consultant work has even taken her on a 15-month journey to the Diocese of Ballarat, Victoria in Australia. Several of her texts have appeared in anthems, cantatas and even an opera/oratorio by prolific contemporary composers. One of her most famous texts is “Sing a New Church,” commissioned for the 1991 convention of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians.
Her hymnody is derived from her experiences of the Roman Catholic Church during Vatican II along with her involvement with liturgy and music. Sr. Dufner writes texts that function within Catholic liturgy, as well as texts which speak centrally from the Word of God. It was her realization that the Catholic Church was in need of English texts after the Vatican II reforms which challenged her to follow in the ways of Martin Luther. She began her hymn writing by creating texts for specific public domain tunes, free of copyright restrictions.
Her texts challenge congregations to keep the church progressing into the future and have earned her a respected presence in hymnals of several denominations throughout the world. Sr. Dufner is also known for her award-winning hymn texts centered on the Virgin Mary and her passion to speak out about women’s rights and injustices.
“The Spirit Sends Us Forth to Serve,” based on Isaiah 61:1-4 and Luke 4:16-22, highlights our Christian mission here on Earth by challenging readers to live out the gospel. Sr. Dufner’s modern English writing style is simple and dynamic, calling the assembly into vibrant prayer and action. This hymn flourishes with action verbs: bring, comfort, help, serve. Sr. Dufner cleverly reiterates the first stanza through the last stanza, as she sends the congregation forth in Jesus’ name through the working of the Holy Spirit. Her texts are often paired with familiar hymn tunes, for practical purposes and to remind us as citizens of the world of our rich ecumenical heritage shared between all. We sing tunes from the past to connect us with our past, and by pairing a fresh text with a durable and loved tune, we bridge the gaps between the past and present and become active witnesses to our evolving faith and church.
LAND OF REST is an American folk tune with ballad roots from Northern England and Scotland. It is traced back to The Christian’s Harp, published in 1832, and has associations with the Appalachians as a shape note tune. Previously assigned the title NEW PROSPECT in the 1844 edition of The Sacred Harp, it was named LAND OF REST for its pairing with the hymn, “O Land of Rest! For Thee I Sigh.” Annabel Morris Buchanan is responsible for the common harmonization of this tune, as she published it in her 1938 Folk Hymns of America.
The spirit sends us forth to serve; we go in Jesus' name
to bring glad tidings to the poor, God's favor to proclaim.
We go to comfort those who mourn and set the burdened free:
where hope is dim, to share a dream and help the blind to see.
We go to be the hands of Christ, to scatter joy like seed
and all our days, to cherish life, to do the loving deed.
Then let us go to serve in peace, the Gospel to proclaim.
God's Spirit has empowered us; we go in Jesus' name.
First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas
A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus
