“This Corner of Unmeasured Space”
This month we continue our Hymn of the Month series in which one or more hymns drawn from collections published by The Leupold Foundation 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/or 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.
With all of the outdoor activities that come with summer, it would seem appropriate during the final month of summer for congregations to consider our calling as Christians to be stewards of creation. Thus, the Hymn of the Month for August 2024, “This Corner of Unmeasured Space”, provides a hymnic resource for doing so with the John Thornburg (b. 1954) text set to an original tune by Jane Marshall (1924-2019). The first line of the hymn, which refers to the earth as a “corner of unmeasured space, a grain within the vast expanse,” sets the stage for the following two stanzas, which lament humanity’s role in polluting the earth, “now achoke in smoke and soot.” The fourth and final stanza is a prayer imploring God to “renew in us a reverence . . . for this exquisite, holy earth.” Jane Marshall’s tune, composed especially for this text, is both masterful and memorable, the latter trait being especially helpful for introducing a new hymn during a month when many choirs are continuing their summer break.
John Thornburg is a fourth-generation United Methodist minister whose grandfather was a noted gospel singer, touring as a teenager with the legendary Homer Rodeheaver. After graduation from Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Thornburg served in parish ministry for twenty-two years before embarking on a new ministry of song leadership and worship consultation. He is now a senior area consultant for the Texas Methodist Foundation. Jane Marshall was a composer, conductor, organist, author, preacher, and teacher extraordinaire. She also held degrees from SMU, where she later served as an adjunct faculty member and taught summer courses in church music. Her published choral works, numbering around 200 anthems, cover a sixty-year span, and many of her hymn tunes, some with her own texts, appear in numerous denominational hymnals. One collection of Hymns by John Thornburg and Jane Marshall, What Gift Can We Bring was published by The Leupold Foundation in 2003.
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