“To This Table”
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 website for consideration by pastors and musicians who may wish to introduce the hymn to their congregations the following month, perhaps by having the choir introduce the hymn on the first Sunday of the month or season and then inviting the congregation to join with the choir in singing the hymn on each subsequent Sunday. Additional hymns will occasionally be suggested for a particular Sunday or festival in the church year; 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 on the church calendar.
The Hymn of the Month for October 2025 is “To This Table” by V. Earle Copes (1921-2014). As a Eucharistic text, the hymn is appropriate not only for World Communion Sunday, the first Sunday in October for congregations who observe that commemoration, but for every Sunday of the month for congregations who celebrate the Eucharist weekly. The first stanza begins with a reference to the “table” (“To this table Christ invites us”), which establishes a pattern for all subsequent stanzas (“To this table we come humbly,” At this table he involves us,” “From the table he now sends us”), with the exception of stanza 4, which focuses on the Holy Spirit with the opening phrase, “May his spirit dwell among us.” Copes also composed a lovely accessible melody for his text, and both were included in his collection of texts and tunes entitled, Vicar’s Tunes: A Hymnary, and published by The Leupold Foundation in 2005. For the more adventurous congregation, Joa͂o Wilson Faustini (1931-2023) set the text to a lyrical Brazilian folk melody in another Leupold Foundation publication, The Heavens Are Telling.
Earle Copes attended Davidson College in North Carolina and Union Theological Seminary in New York, from which he received both the MDiv and MSM degrees. He served as minister of music in a number of United Methodist churches and taught organ and church music classes in several colleges and universities. He also served as a consultant for the 1966 revision of The United Methodist Hymnal, and his hymn tunes are now found in the hymnals of numerous denominations. Joa͂o Wilson Faustini was a distinguished Brazilian church musician, choral conductor, composer, and hymnal editor, who was educated in the United States at Westminster Choir College and at Union Theological Seminary. Four collections of his hymn texts, tunes, and arrangements have been published by The Leupold Foundation.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.