Music professor wins hymn writing contest

Dr. Heather Josselyn-Cranson, associate professor of music at Northwestern College, has been selected as the winner of a hymn writing contest sponsored by Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of Theology.

Faculty members from the university, in collaboration with leaders in a growing religion and labor movement, are preparing a collection of hymns that focuses on the struggles and hopes of working people and their communities. In June, they placed a call for hymns to be included in this collection.

Submissions included hymns written with original text, but paired with well-known public domain tunes that can be easily sung in a variety of venues, including public gatherings, marches and worship. The first-place prize was set at $500, with second prize at $300.

Judges for the contest included hymn writer Jann Aldredge-Clanton and Perkins professors C. Michael Hawn and Joerg Rieger.

Josselyn-Cranson’s hymn touched on seeking justice through neighborly love, living wages, fair working conditions and speaking out against abuse. “I wrote the text not thinking of a tune,” says Josselyn-Cranson. “I started with a phrase in the first line, and that determined the pattern of syllables I would follow.”

Prior to joining Northwestern’s faculty in 2005, Josselyn-Cranson served as a minister of music at congregations in Florida, Massachusetts and Russia. She is the director of the music ministry program at Northwestern, and has received national attention for her composition and hymn writing.

A graduate of Bates College, Josselyn-Cranson earned a master’s degree in music composition, sacred music and liturgy, as well as a doctorate in theology, from Boston University School of Theology.