Go to the world

Go to the world. Sylvia Dunstan* (1955-93). ‘Alan Barthel commanded me to write a hymn for the 1985 Emmanuel College Convocation, on the scriptural text of the great commission, saying, “And I’ll need it Thursday to go to the printers.” So I did as he commanded me’ (author’s note). The hymn became an ‘instant’ tradition at the Emmanuel Convocations where Sylvia Dunstan was working on her ThM. degree and Barthel was professor of church music. The hymn’s use quickly spread as part of the closing of term Eucharistic liturgy at Emmanuel and at many of the United Church of Canada’s ordination liturgies. It was published in the first volume of Dunstan’s hymns, In Search of Hope and Grace...