Brad Croushorn ’93 wrote the hymn text “Open Wide the Doors”, which was chosen from among 60 entries from three countries by Duke University Chapel as the winner of the 2021 Hymn Competition. It was featured as the Opening Hymn on Sunday, Jan. 23, 2022, at Duke Chapel to reflect the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
Croushorn is minister of music and liturgy at All Saints’ United Methodist Church in Morrisville, North Carolina.
The hymn debut can be seen and heard at the beginning of this clip. The Duke Chapel Choir and Chapel Organist Christopher Jacobson led the congregation in singing it to the English tune RUSTINGTON.
Dr. Zebulon M. Highben, director of Chapel Music at Duke Chapel and associate professor of the practice of church music at Duke Divinity School, coordinated the contest. “‘Open Wide the Doors’ will be a marvelous addition to the church’s hymnody,” Highben said. “The text beautifully and succinctly addresses our contest’s theme of compassion, as it calls us to open the doors of our hearts.”
“As I see it, practicing compassion – for others and also for ourselves – is what creates an opening (‘doors’ and ‘windows’) to enter into an authentic connection with each other,” Croushorn said in a UMC press release. “Practicing compassion illuminates our commonalities and brings us to the gentle understanding that indeed, God is in our midst. To me, it is the framework of living in the way of love. And this idea was running in my mind continually while writing ‘Open Wide the Doors.’”
As the winner of the competition, Croushorn will receive $1,500 and his hymn will be published by MorningStar Music/ECS Publishing Group in a collection of new and recent hymns from Duke Chapel.
A composer and vocalist based in the Raleigh-Durham area, Croushorn is an associate editor of School Choral Publications at Alfred Music Publishing. He also participates in the local music scene through the NC Songwriters Co-op and Carolina Contemporary Composers. As a performer, he has sung in the Academy of Music in Philadelphia and at Avery Fisher Hall in New York and multiple years at the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival, hosted at EMU each summer.