1828 - 1929 Person Name: V. Gregersen Hymnal Number: 306 Author of "Our Father Has Light In His Window" in Hymnal for Church and Home Andreas Peter Vilhelm Gregersen was a Danish Lutheran Pastor, song poet and composer. He was born in Flensburg, Denmark, on 17 March 1848, and died on 16 January 1929 in Gjerrild. His father was Laurits Eduard Gregersen, a grocery store owner and a manufacturer, and his mother was Anna Laura Helene Schmidt (Gregersen).
In 1864 the family moved to Copenhagen. Gregersen enrolled at Sorø Academy, where he studied, receiving his baccalaureate in 1868. For a time he then worked as office paid staff in his father’s business and in 1874-75 he worked as a tutor in Horsens, after which he began theological study. Gregersen was theological candidate in 1881 and in the same year was ordained and installed as a Pastor of Our Savior's Church in Copenhagen. During the years up through 1886 he served in several other parishes, and in 1887 became Pastor of Hornslet Parish. Vilhelm Gregersen was parish priest in Hornslet Parish from 1887 to 1918. His Advent song Der er noget i luften (There is Something in the Air), is well known in Denmark. It was written in Hornslet parsonage. He resigned his Hornslet Pastorship in 1918 and retired in 1920, and then he moved to Gjerrild, Denmark where he died 16 January 1929.
Gregersen wrote verse through most of his life, including some while he was still a student. A number of collections of his poetry were published, most notably Winter Dance: A Collection of Poems, in 1911. Winter Dance included Der er noget i luften. The first version of the Indre Missions (Inner Mission) Home Songbook included 19 songs by Gregersen. In the Danish Salmebog 1953 edition, five songs by Gregersen were included. While several of Gregersen’s songs are still in use in Denmark and two are still included in a recent major Danish Lutheran hymnal, it seems that Vor Fader har Lys i sit Vindu (Our Father Has Light in His Window) is not among those songs by Gregersen that are currently recognized as familiar or important in Denmark.
Walt Thompson, Sources for this material are: http://www.dendanskesalmebogonline.dk/biografi/372/93
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