30 October 2023 | Oslo, Norway [Nils-Petter Enstad with tedNEWS]
One Saturday night in March 1973, Norwegian television viewers watching “Saturday Night with Erik Bye” were introduced to a young couple who ran Christian youth work in Bergen. It was Monica and Per de Lange’s debut to the nation, singing the spiritual song “Wayfaring Stranger”. As they sang their way into viewers’ hearts, by the following Monday morning, Arne Bendiksen was on the phone: He wanted them in the recording studio.
It’s been 50 years, but they still like to sing in churches and for others who invite them. The repertoire is versatile and wide, from hymns and songs to folk and children’s songs. The year after signing for Bye, they were invited to Odd Grythe’s program “På direkte”. Here, they performed “The Heavenly Worship,” and for many, this became the couple’s signature tune. In the same year, they participated in the program series “Fresh Faces in Television”. With double bass and guitar, this joy-filled Adventist couple became familiar to many through concerts and recordings.
Where else could English and Norwegians meet?
It was at the then Newbold College in England that Per met – the quintessential English Monica Vine. He was there to study theology, and she studied music with the piano as her primary instrument. Both participated in a singing group that travelled around connecting the college with youth in the local church. All that touring together, rehearsing together, eating together, worshipping together – led to two group members in particular becoming particularly well acquainted. The wedding took place on 31 May 1970. The following year, they moved to Norway.
In Bergen, they were involved in youth work and also made friends in the Ten-Sing movement, which flourished at that time. The next stop was Mandal, then Naustdal, Oslo and later also Mjøndalen.
A Move to the United States of America
In 1980, the family of four moved from Norway to the United States. Here they stayed for four years and made good use of the time: Monica trained as a nurse, Per first got a master’s degree, then a doctorate in public health and the family increased to five, with the birth of the couple’s third son.
Before going there, they had recorded their fourth LP, “The Tree.” Looking back, they say that they should have “probably included a few more English songs to connect with an American audience,” But they also were able to produce a record in the U.S. as well, on Sunset Boulevard, titled “Flowers on My Path.”
When their stay in the United States ended, they rented a large station wagon and began their journey home by driving across the United States from West to East, where they held 20 scheduled concerts over 30 days. Strenuous it was, they add, “but we got to see a lot of the great country.”
“Shabbat and Salad”
Per says that when he mentioned in conversation that he belonged to the Adventist community, the response was: “Adventist? It’s like Sabbath and salad.”
The line was at least partially right, and the name stuck because Adventists celebrate the sabbath, and their diet is primarily vegetarian. Per has spent many years in public health work combined with pastoral ministry. The latest dietary recommendations from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, to eat less red meat and abstain from alcohol, is close to his heart. One of his last working relationships was with the county medical officer in Agder, where he worked with public health issues. He has also been an academic editor for the Adventist health agency “Sunnhetsbladet” and has written the book “Ha det godt – lenger”. He has given many smoking cessation courses over the years and has been heavily involved in temperance work.
The couple have also been involved in the promotion and distribution of the Bible. In 2016, they were awarded the “Bible Prize” from the Norwegian Bible Society “For their 40-year commitment to the Bible through song and music.”
Bjørbekk and Retirement Years
It was in 2002 that Per and Monica returned to live in Bjorbekk, near Arendal, where Per grew up as a child, and into the house his maternal grandfather built in 1915. He was then a county gardener in old Aust-Agder but started his own gardening business.
Per’s family name, with the slightly alien “they”, derives from his Huguenot ancestors on his father’s side. They settled in Holland in the 1600s, taking “de Lange” as their family name.
The family name of Per’s mother was Lange, and both the former foreign minister Halvard Lange and his father, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Christian Lange, belonged to his mother’s family.
“So we could probably call ourselves ‘Lange de Lange’, but that would be a bit long,” says Per with a twinkle in his eye.
Monica’s parents were Raymond and Margaret Vine (known affectionately as Ray and Peggy). Ray served as a minister in the British Union Conference, beginning in Hull (North England Conference) and ending in Oxford in 1978. Peggy was originally from Northern Ireland. From 1966 to 1978, Ray served as Editor of the Stanborough Press, taking it through its transition years from Stanborough Park, Watford, to Grantham, Lincolnshire. Monica’s twin brothers, Richard and Robert, both served as pastors, now retired in Bournemouth, England.
As an encouragement to the members he served, Monica’s father, Ray, would frequently end his sermon with the words of Jesus:
“Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” (Matthew 25:23 NIV)
In the same spirit, for your 50 years of ministry, providing joy-filled music about the Jesus you both love and know – we say ‘thank you’.
Per and Monica de Lange were born in 1948 and 1949, respectively. Since 1973, they have made seven albums of Christian songs, children’s songs and folk songs. Their most recent double album was in 2008, “A Life in Song.”
The original version of this story was posted in the online edition of Adventnytt. Nils-Petter Enstad is a member of the Salvation Army in Norway. David Neal contributed to this article for tedNEWS. Featured image: Monica and Per de Lange singing at 2015 Norwegian Union Conference Session at Tyrifjord junior college, May 21-24, 2015. Courtesy of Adventist Media Exchange / 100093655. Bible Society Award photo: Courtesy of Adventist Exchange/100065651.
