“Free from Fear”
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.
HYMN OF THE MONTH:
Text: “Free from Fear” John Core, Through the Rushes, p. 16. Tune: FOUR FREEDOMS, Iteke Prins, Wonders in Your Word, p. 21
The Hymn of the Month for November 2024 is “Free from Fear” by John Core (1951-2017) set to the tune FOUR FREEDOMS by Iteke Prins (b. 1937). A hymn of thanksgiving, which could be used not only on the holiday but throughout the month of November in anticipation of the holiday, Core’s hymn masterfully paraphrases Joel 2.21-27 (First Reading, Thanksgiving, Year B, Revised Common Lectionary) while skillfully interpolating Franklin D. Roosevelt’s four freedoms (Freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear) into the text by devoting a stanza to each. If introduced by the choir or a cantor on the first Sunday in November and sung by the congregation with support by the choir on subsequent Sundays, the Prins tune composed for the text should be well familiar in time for a Thanksgiving liturgy.
John Core was born at Camp (now Fort) Rucker, Alabama, and earned a B.A. in Speech Communication from West Virginia University in Morgantown, where he served as a Library Associate cataloging music from 1975 until his death in 2017. Core was a member of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada and published four collections of texts with The Leupold Foundation. Iteke 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 eight volumes of hymn tunes with The Leupold Foundation.
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