Sylvia Dunstan
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Born in 1955, Sylvia Dunstan attributes her love of song to her grandparents, who kept song alive in the family and entrusted Sylvia's formal musical education to one of the nun's at the local convent. In the early seventies, the youth choir at church relied on the music of Ray Repp, the Medical Mission Sisters, and secular pop music. Sylvia began writing songs at this time, but relates that these "are now under a well-deserved and merciful curtain of oblivion." It wasn't long before she met Sister Miriam Theresa Winter, who took her to the next step of writing songs based on Scripture. Sylvia eventually realized that here talents did not lay with the music and concentrated instead on the lyrics. "Congregational resistance to unfamiliar tunes led me to use the hymn book tunes as the vehicle for the texts." She was further shepherded and encouraged by Alan Barthel.
Her bachelor degree was earned from York University, and she received graduate degrees in theology and divinity from Emmanuel College, Toronto. In 1980 she was ordained by the Hamilton Conference of the United Church of Canada. During her career, among other things, she served as a minister, a prison chaplain, and editor of a Canadian worship resource journal, Gathering.
In the summer of 1990 she was invited to lead the annual conference of the Hymn Society in the U.S. and Canada in a session exploring her hymnody. That exposure led to the publication of In Search of Hope and Grace, and has prompted requests from various sources for the use of her hymns in various hymnals. Several of her hymns have been published in musical settings by composer Bob Moore-settings that Sylvia enjoyed hearing before her untimely death.
Sylvia Dunstan died on July 25, 1993, almost four months to the day of her being diagnosed with liver cancer. She left behind a ministry that combined a compassionate concern for the needy and distraught with a consuming love of liturgy.