“We Gather Together” History in WSJ
Emily Brink of CICW, Calvin Theologial Seminary, and Reformed Worship magazine was a resource for two national newspapers last week. Last weekend, the Wall Street Journal quoted her in an article on the history of the hymn ”We Gather Together”:
So how did “We Gather Together” get from a 17th-century Dutch songbook to 20th-century American churches and schoolrooms?
One answer is Dutch settlers, who brought it with them to the New World, perhaps as early as the 1620s. The hymn stayed alive in the Dutch-American community throughout the centuries, says Emily Brink of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship in Grand Rapids, Mich. In 1937, when the Christian Reformed Church in North America—a denomination that began with Dutch immigrants who sang only Psalms—made the then-controversial decision to permit hymns to be sung at church, “We Gather Together” was chosen as the opening hymn in the first hymnal.
Earlier, USA Today printed a picture of Emily with pastor Du Fengjing in front of Gang Wa Shi Christian Church, credited to CICW (the picture does not appear on the online version of the article). We are grateful for these opportunities for the media to draw on Emily’s knowledge and experiences!
Thanks for the online version
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