01Mar
This text for Maundy Thursday is one of the hundreds of texts composed by Gracia Grindal (b. 1943) at the suggestion of Wayne Leupold to accompany every reading appointed in the three-year Revised Common Lectionary! While included in the collection for Year A, this hymn based on John1.1-30 is always appropriate for Maundy Thursday because the appointed Gospel is the same for all three years in the RCL. The thoughtful tune by Daniel Charles Damon (b. 1955) is made all the more accessible to congregations by virtue of its AABA form.
Grindal is a native of North Dakota educated at Augsburg College in Minneapolis and the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. She taught at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, for sixteen years before being before joining the faculty of Luther Theological Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1984. Upon her retirement in 2013, she was named Professor Emerita of Rhetoric. Damon is an internationally published write or hymn texts and tunes, an ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church, and a jazz pianist who
has played in many hotels and clubs in the San Francisco Bay area. He holds degrees from Greenville College, Greenville, Illinois (BME) and the Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, California.
Mark Alan Filbert, Hymnology Consultant
Mark Alan Filbert is Cantor (Organist/Choir Director) for Saint Paul Lutheran Church in downtown Denver, Colorado, a position he has held since 2002. Currently pursuing a doctoral degree in sacred music (DSM) through the Graduate Theological Foundation, Mark holds bachelor’s degrees in sacred music (BM) and music education (BME) from Oral Roberts University and master’s degrees in sacred music (MSM) and choral conducting (MM) from Southern Methodist University. He completed further study in the United States at Northwestern University, Westminster Choir College, Hamline University, the University of South Carolina, and DePaul University, from which he received the Level III Orff-Schulwerk Teaching Certificate, and in Europe at the Netherlands Carillon School, the Haarlem International Organ Academy, also in the Netherlands, and the Centro Pro Unione in Rome. Mark’s scholarly articles and reviews have been published in Reformed Liturgy and Music, The American Organist, and The Hymn. An avid collector of hymnals, he is a Life Member of The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada and has been a featured performer and/or workshop presenter at four national conferences. He is also an active member of the American Guild of Organists, having recently served as Worship Chair for the 2019 Denver Regional Convention, and as Sub-Dean, Dean, and Grant Writer for the Denver Rocky Mountain Chapter. He resides in Aurora, Colorado, with his husband of 29 years, Thomas C. Strickland, and their two cats, Libby and Brubeck.
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