On our September 15 program, we will open with a piece by Sing For Joy Music Director Emeritus, John Ferguson. The piece, entitled "Who is This," is Ferguson's musical setting of a Sylvia Dunstan text that explores various facets of Jesus's identity. Dunstan opens the text with a question, alluding to a conversation between Jesus and his disciples in Mark 8: "Who is this who walks among us?" The questions continue for two verses, a series of queries that, taken together, gather into a sense of urgency. In the third and final verse, the text answers itself: "You are Christ, from God eternal! Living God, from human womb, our deliverer and redeemer, known by cross and empty tomb."
As I encountered Dunstan's poetry in preparation for the program, I marveled at her poetic craft. I was drawn to her evocative use of question-and-answer, a literary device that in the hands of another poet might come across as clichéd. Not so for Dunstan. I was also taken by her choice of the final two attributes of Jesus: "known by cross and empty tomb." As an ending to a short but evocative hymn text, we are left not only with words but with images. Those images of cross and empty tomb encapsulate all the descriptors that preceded them, an emphatic visual ending to the text.
Sylvia Dunstan authored many hymn texts during her very short career. Born in Canada in 1955, she was an ordained minister in the United Church of Canada and served as a prison chaplain. She began writing hymns in the mid-1970s at the urging of a friend, and she continued to write until her untimely death from cancer at age 38. The hymn text of Dunstan's with which I am most familiar (and to which I am most partial!) is the marvelous exploration of Christological paradox, "You, Lord, Are Both Lamb and Shepherd," most often set to the chant tune PICARDY. The final phrase of that hymn's first verse highlights Dunstan's remarkable way with words. Addressed to Jesus, the verse proclaims, "You, the everlasting instant; you, whom we both scorn and crave."
This month, I invite you to give thanks with me for the life of hymn writer Sylvia Dunstan. Take a moment to look through your own hymnal for her texts, or search for her poetry online. And we can all look forward to the September 15 program, when we will hear her words set to the music of our own John Ferguson!
Peace be with you,
