Hymn #183: Jesus, Take Us to the Mountain | First Congregational Church

Jaroslav Jan Vajda (b. 1919) wrote this Transfiguration hymn in 1991 for St. Luke Lutheran Church in Silver Spring, Maryland. The church members wanted a new hymn to help commemorate their fiftieth anniversary as a congregation. The text tells the story of the Transfiguration in verse.

Jaroslav J. Vajda began writing poetry at the age of eighteen. This interest led to his work on the Commission on Worship for the Lutheran Church, serving from 1960 until 1978. He has been a popular workshop leader and has published several collections of his works, including Now the Joyful Celebration (1987).

Carl Flentge Schalk (b. 1929) composed SILVER SPRING in 1991 for this text by Jaroslav Vajda, naming it for the Maryland city where St. Luke Lutheran Church is located. A frequent collaborator with Vajda, both men served on the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship in the 1960s and 1970s.

Carl F. Schalk has composed more than fifty hymn tunes in his long career as music director, professor, and editor. He has edited Church Music magazine since 1966 and is the author of Luther on Music: Paradigms of Praise (1988), a book on Martin Luther’s influences on church music.