“Join the Joyful Dance of Easter”
This month we continue our Hymn of the Month series in which one or more hymns drawn from collections published by Leupold Editions will be posted on the opening page of the website for consideration by pastors and musicians who may wish to introduce the hymn to their congregations the following month. The Hymn of the Month will often be thematically appropriate for a particular season of the church year or it may be related to a more general theme about the church’s mission in contemporary society. Thus, pastors and musicians may wish to have the choir introduce the hymn on the first Sunday of the month or season and then invite the congregation to join with the choir in singing the hymn on each of the remaining Sundays. Additional hymns will occasionally be suggested for a particular Sunday in the church year or for annual commemorations, such as the liturgies of Holy Week; such hymns may only be appropriate on the designated day, or they might be used as a Hymn of the Month in anticipation of or in response to the particular day observed on the church calendar.
As with the March Hymn of the Month, the April Hymn of the Month might more aptly be considered a Hymn of the Season, in this instance a Hymn of the Season for Early Easter. If introduced by the choir on Easter Sunday, this year the final day of March, or on the Second Sunday of Easter since Easter Sunday may not be the best day for introducing a new hymn, the hymn could appropriately be sung by the congregation on the following three Sundays. The hymn for early Easter in 2024 is “Join the Joyful Dance of Easter”, a text by R. Frederik Crider, Jr. (b, 1941) set to tune by Iteke Prins (b. 1937) that combines dance imagery with the Easter story as recorded in Mark’s Gospel and appointed for Year B in the Revised Common Lectionary. The fifth line of each stanza proclaims, “Christ is risen! Alleluia!,” followed by a concluding sixth line about the dance of Easter, but never more effectively than in the third stanza which asserts that “Christians never dance alone.”
Crider is a retired United Methodist pastor who holds degrees from Lebanon Valley College (BA) in Annville, Pennsylvania; United Theological Seminary (MDiv) in Dayton, Ohio; and Wesley Theological Seminary (D. Min.) in Washington, DC. He has long been writing occasional hymn texts for use in congregations he served, usually to accompany a certain biblical text or preaching theme. Retirement has given him more time to devote to what he believes is a “second calling.” His first collection of hymn texts, Extravagance Instead, was published by Leupold Editions, Inc., in 2013.
Prins was born in Holland, and immigrated to the United States in 1949. After achieving her career goal as a registered nurse, Prins later served as organist and music director for Blooming Grove Reformed Church in Rensselaer, New York, from 1969 until 2005. Prins has published seven volumes of hymn tunes with Leupold Editions.
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