Press Release

Published 11.10.2008 Author: FSPC-Communication

calvin09: official hymn for the Calvin Year published

The title of the official hymn for the Jubilee Year calvin 09 is called “People of the Lord”. This was announced today by the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches at a joint meeting in Berne.

The Jubilee Year “calvin09” for the 500th anniversary of the birth of the Reformer Jean Calvin has an official hymn. Greg Scheer of the Christian Reformed Church in the USA has won the competition for the international Calvin hymn announced by the Patronage Committee of the Jubilee Year with his contribution “People of the Lord”. Clifton Kirkpatrick, WARC President and also President of the Patronage Committee of the Jubilee Year, announced this today at a meeting of top representatives of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) and the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches (FSPC).

According to Kirkpatrick, “People of the Lord” suits the Calvin Jubilee admirably. “The hymn encourages the people of God to hand on the heritage of the faith to the next generation – as Calvin successfully did before us.” Moreover the composer has created a “fascinating link between the early Reformed hymns and the modern world”. It is now for the Reformed Churches to “play the hymn in as many worship services, devotions or congregational events as possible during the Calvin Year,” Kirkpatrick continued. A CD of “People of the Lord” is currently in production. The version performed by Greg Scheer, church music director in Grand Rapids and a teacher at the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, can already be heard at www.calvin09.org.

A further competition looked for exceptional sermons for the Calvin Year. Here the Patronage Committee has awarded prizes to three particularly inspiring sermons from those sent in: Ben Daniel (San José, USA), Maurice Gardiol (Plan-les-Ouates, Switzerland) and Kathrin Oxen (Bützow, Germany) are the winners of the sermon competition. The Patronage Committee has also awarded a special prize to the theology student Csilla Lörincz (Tirgu-Mures, Romania) for a particularly original sermon.

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