Greatest hymn of all time announced

From chvn-

Hymns just became exciting, after a tournament was commenced to decide the greatest hymn of all time.

Who needs March Madness when you can do it for hymns?

Through a bracket indicative of the annual NCAA basketball tournament, the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada has definitively decided upon the greatest hymn of all time, according to Religious News Service.

The winner? "Holy, Holy, Holy!"

On the final day of the Hymn Society's annual Dallas conference in July 2019, the news was announced. An online post made by the organization told in more detail the complexities of the contest.

“Some matchups were real nail-biters, while in others one hymn blew its opposition out of the water!” reads the post made July 18 to the society’s Facebook page.

“We can safely say that the Greatest Hymn of All Time — as chosen by you — is: Holy, Holy Holy!!!”

More here-

https://chvnradio.com/christian-news/greatest-hymn-of-all-time-announced

The Midweek Hymn: Onward, Christian Soldiers

From Conservative Woman-

The original words, based on references in the New Testament such as ‘Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ’ (2 Timothy 2:3, King James Bible) were written by an Anglican clergyman and scholar, Sabine Baring-Gould. He must have been superhuman. Standing at an upright desk and working far into the night, he wrote at least 248 books, including 35 novels which were popular in their day, and 1,000 or more other publications on subjects as diverse as saints, antiquities and folk songs. He also had 16 children, 15 of whom lived to adulthood.

He was born in 1834 into the landed gentry. At the age of 30, in 1864, he took holy orders, and became curate at Horbury Bridge, near Wakefield. One of the big events was the Whit Monday procession when the parish children marched to the next village, headed by a cross and banners. The year after taking up his post, Baring-Gould decided to write a hymn for the occasion, and came up with Onward, Christian Soldiers. He later said it took about 15 minutes, apologising, ‘It was written in great haste, and I am afraid that some of the lines are faulty.’ The same year he wrote the other hymn for which he is remembered, Now the Day is Over, performed here by the choir of Hastings College in Nebraska.

More here-

https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-midweek-hymn-onward-christian-soldiers/

‘World’s most loved carol’ turns 200

From Florida-

In Austria today, “Stille Nacht” is considered a national treasure, and tradition says the song should not be played before Christmas Eve. Commercial use of the 202-year old carol is forbidden.
During the last 200 years, the song has been translated into more than 300 languages. In the mid-1800s, it was an Episcopal priest with Florida ties, John Freeman Young, bishop of Florida from 1867-85, who gave us the English translation we sing today.

The carol also enjoyed great recognition as early as World War I, when soldiers on each side of the frontline laid down their weapons on Christmas Eve and sang the carol across no man’s land.
Another beloved Christmas carol was written by a preacher after a memorable Christmas Eve.

“O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie!

More here-

https://www.waltonsun.com/news/20181218/worlds-most-loved-carol-turns-200

‘Silent Night’ turns 200 this year. Is it the greatest Christmas song ever?

From American Magazine-

The hills around Salzburg are alive, we hear, “alive with the sound of music.” Young and old, the people sing and hum and strum. The water in the brooks laughs as it trips and falls downstream. Church chimes sigh with the breeze.

This music, we also hear, has been sung for 1,000 years. Maybe. But one song—probably the most famous—is celebrating only 200 years. On Christmas Eve 1818, in the church of St. Nicholas in Oberndorf near Salzburg, “Stille Nacht” (“Silent Night”) was sung for the first time.

The words to “Silent Night” were the work of the Rev. Joseph Mohr, a young priest in Oberndorf. He wrote them in 1816 as a reflection on peace after a summer of violence in Salzburg. On Christmas Eve two years later, he asked his friend Franz Xaver Gruber, a schoolteacher in the neighboring town of Arnsdorf and also the organist in Oberndorf, to set his words to music. Gruber did so, and together that evening at Christmas Eve Mass, the two performed “Silent Night” for the gathered faithful, Mohr singing and Gruber playing the guitar, since the church organ was not working. “Silent Night” was an immediate sensation.

More here-

https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2018/12/06/silent-night-turns-200-year-it-greatest-christmas-song-ever?fbclid=IwAR30LXTIwwuXg0YXWm1P2v4yJovxgLtLENwDClFufICoLCd_uWLm4pBy-EA

Hymnathons: Episcopal choirs perform marathon-style training events to raise funds

From Seattle-

Fiona Campbell prepared for last weekend’s test of endurance by eating a good breakfast, hydrating and keeping a big water bottle by her side.

The Jan. 27 event wasn’t a 26.2-mile race, a running marathon. It was a hymnathon — a test of singing stamina like no other.

“It’s going to be a looooooong time,” said Campbell, 20, the week before the fundraising event. Campbell’s been a chorister at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle, Washington, since she was 10. To raise money for the Evensong Choir to sing at historical cathedrals in England this summer, choir members sang the first verses of 720 hymns for almost nine hours straight. They had a 15-minute morning break, a one-hour lunch break and a 15-minute afternoon break.

Working through the Hymnal 1982, they started with hymn No. 1 at 8 a.m. They also devoted two hours to singing all the verses of the special dedication hymns chosen by donors who gave an extra amount for the honor. To fit it all in, they had two timekeepers to help singers average about 30 seconds a hymn, with the goal to cross the finish line by 6 p.m.

More here-

https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2018/01/29/hymnathons-episcopal-choirs-perform-marathon-style-training-events-to-raise-funds/

RIP: Raymond Glover, Hymnal 1982 editor

From ENS-

Church musician Raymond Glover, 89, who influenced millions of Episcopalians by being the general editor of The Hymnal 1982, died Dec. 15 in Alexandria, Virginia.

Glover was born in Buffalo, New York, and began his musical life as a young chorister at St. Paul’s Cathedral there. Later, he sang in the choir at St. Mary Magdalen, when he was an undergraduate at the University of Toronto, studying composition with Healy Willan, who became his mentor and friend. His next move was to Union Theological Seminary to earn a Masters of Sacred Music. He returned to Buffalo as cathedral organist and choirmaster and met Joyce MacDonald (1923-2013), who was director of Christian education. They were married on Easter Monday 1957 and remained partners in so many ways throughout their life together.

More here-

https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2017/12/19/rip-raymond-glover-hymnal-1982-editor/

Falling In Love With Language — Through The Power Of Hymns

From NPR-

Anyone thoughtful — no matter what their spiritual leaning — can appreciate the art of the hymn: the rhythm, the sonorous language, the discipline and structure. My first encounter with that power — despite having been part of a youth group as a teenager — came when I was a freshman at a dignified religious institution. I remember cigarette smoke and a song, a somber little something blaring from a nearby room. Three of us stood in the parking lot with Newports hanging from our teeth. I don't recall our conversation, but that night I had my first true experience with hymns and their lyrical magic.

If you want to unravel that magic, I recommend starting with Shakespeare's Common Prayers: The Book of Common Prayer and the Elizabethan Age. Journalist Daniel Swift offers a scholarly treatise on cultural history, Shakespeare's plays, and Anglican liturgy, among other things. It's an arresting but heavy read, one that should be of course followed by The Book of Common Prayer, where it finds its inspiration. Swift calls the latter a "history of response" and argues that, in its pages, "Shakespeare found a body of contested speech: a pattern and a music of mourning." Both works are rich and welcome companions to any collection of hymns. The Oremus Hymnal, a collection of pieces for varying occasions, is a good one for the uninitiated. "At even, ere the sun was set" an evening read, resolves:

More here-

https://www.npr.org/2014/08/15/340700735/falling-in-love-with-language-through-the-power-of-hymns

Keep 1982 Hymnals Handy

From The Living Church-

A symposium at Virginia Theological Seminary, “The Once and Future Hymnal,” celebrated the 1982 Hymnal and discussed possible directions for its revision. The event, sponsored by the seminary’s Center for Liturgy and Music on Oct. 23-24, gathered dozens of scholars, musicians, and clergy from around the country. Speakers sang the praises of the current hymnal and sounded a rather hesitant note about the prospects for a new one.

“As the Episcopal Church looks toward prayer book and hymnal revision — do we? or don’t we?” said Ellen Johnston, the center’s director and a member of the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music. “I was especially taken with the presentations of the Rev. Martin Seltz of the [Evangelical Lutheran Church in America] and David Eicher of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Hearing about their processes of hymnal revision opened my eyes to the many facets of this work.”

Episcopal speakers at the symposium most often expressed concerns about the time costs and difficulty of finding consensus that would attend a comprehensive hymnal revision.

More here-

https://livingchurch.org/2017/11/27/keep-1982-hymnals-handy/

The Story behind the Navy Hymn: In Honor of Veterans Day

From Christian Headlines-

It’s one of the most famous hymns in Christendom: “Eternal Father Strong to Save.” It’s often called “the Navy hymn” because it’s sung at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.  But how many of us know the story behind this moving hymn?

The hymn’s author was an Anglican churchman named William Whiting, who was born in England in 1825. As a child, Whiting dodged in and out of the waves as they crashed along England’s shoreline. But years later, on a journey by sea, Whiting learned the true and terrifying power of those waves. A powerful storm blew in, so violent that the crew lost control of the vessel. During these desperate hours, as the waves roared over the decks, Whiting’s faith in God helped him to stay calm. When the storm subsided, the ship, badly damaged, limped back to port.

The experience had a galvanizing effect on Whiting. As one hymn historian put it, “Whiting was changed by this experience. He respected the power of the ocean nearly as much as he respected the God who made it and controls it.”

The memory of this voyage allowed Whiting to provide comfort to one of the boys he taught at a training school in Winchester.

More here-

https://www.christianheadlines.com/columnists/breakpoint/the-story-behind-the-navy-hymn-in-honor-of-veterans-day.html

Everyone Can Sing: How to Stop the Non-Singer Epidemic in Our Churches

From Patheos-

Yes, you can. Everyone can sing.

Our culture is obsessed with musical superstars. We see American Idols high and lifted up as the pinnacle of vocal prowess. The commercial music industry has furthered the idea that those who can truly sing should be rewarded with recording contracts, while others are better off sitting and being spectators. Those who love to sing but feel they are lacking in talent will relegate themselves to singing along with the radio, or only sharing their voices with an audience of shampoo and conditioner bottles.

Sadly, instead of counteracting the myth that singing is something only a few are born to do, churches embrace this musical culture. We place a holy microphone in a few select hands, reducing the congregation to an inaudible, unnecessary backup group.
Read more at

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/ponderanew/2017/06/20/everyone-can-sing-or-how-to-stop-the-non-singer-epidemic-in-our-churches/#aUWog3LXMZD3k0Hl.99

Everyone Can Sing: How to Stop the Non-Singer Epidemic in Our Churches

From Patheos-

Yes, you can. Everyone can sing.

Our culture is obsessed with musical superstars. We see American Idols high and lifted up as the pinnacle of vocal prowess. The commercial music industry has furthered the idea that those who can truly sing should be rewarded with recording contracts, while others are better off sitting and being spectators. Those who love to sing but feel they are lacking in talent will relegate themselves to singing along with the radio, or only sharing their voices with an audience of shampoo and conditioner bottles.

Sadly, instead of counteracting the myth that singing is something only a few are born to do, churches embrace this musical culture. We place a holy microphone in a few select hands, reducing the congregation to an inaudible, unnecessary backup group.

But singing isn’t a talent. It’s a skill, one that must be developed, encouraged, and consistently used. Oh sure, not everyone is a potential Callas or Pavarotti (or, for my fellow baritones, Fischer-Dieskau). But the truth is that everyone can sing. Science tells us that tone deafness is a rarity. Practically anyone with functional hearing can distinguish pitch and learn to replicate it vocally. My experience as an elementary music teacher confirms this. Having taught more than a thousand children in an underprivileged school, I never found a student who, with instruction and practice, couldn’t improve as a singer. Even those who began with monotone droning would show some improvement over time.

More here-

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/ponderanew/2017/06/20/everyone-can-sing-or-how-to-stop-the-non-singer-epidemic-in-our-churches/

The complicated story behind the famous hymn ‘Amazing Grace’

From PRI-

“It seems kind of like an all-purpose, hopeful song,” says Steve Turner, author of “Amazing Grace: The Story of America's Most Beloved Song.” But while the song has a universal message, its origins are much more complex.

For one, while the song is a well-known anthem of the civil rights movement, its original text was written by a former slave trader. John Newton was an Anglican priest in England in 1773, when he debuted a hymn to his congregation called “Faith’s Review and Expectation.”

The hymn opened with a powerful line: “Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound) That sav’d a wretch like me!” And it drew on Newton’s own experience as a slave trader — specifically, from a near-death experience he’d had decades earlier, when the slave ship he was on encountered a violent storm, prompting him to convert to Christianity. (Newton didn’t speak out against slavery until 1788.)

The hymn wasn’t particularly popular in England, according to Deborah Carlton Loftis, executive director of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada. But she says in the United States, it became well-known during the Second Great Awakening in the early 1800s when thousands of people — white and black — would gather for outdoor revival meetings.

Songs were important to these meetings — although not always exactly as they were written. Revival leaders frequently switched out melodies and borrowed verses from other hymns. “There were choruses and refrains that people could learn quickly,” Loftis says.

More here-

https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-04-30/complicated-story-behind-famous-hymn-amazing-grace

Naval Academy's Mesmerizing Pearl Harbor Tribute Was Inspired by Near Disaster on the Sea

From Independent Journal Review- (Video is very moving)

“Eternal Father, Strong to Save.” The Navy knows it well, and for good reason.

Sung regularly at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, it is considered “the Navy hymn.” It was sung at the funerals of former presidents John F. Kennedy and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

But the hymn itself has a history with the sea — a history that dates back over 150 years.

According to Eric Metaxas at Breakpoint.org, the story began when the hymn's author, William Whiting, was just a boy:

The hymn’s author was an Anglican churchman named William Whiting, who was born in England in 1825. As a child, Whiting dodged in and out of the waves as they crashed along England’s shoreline.

More here-

http://ijr.com/2016/12/751471-naval-academys-mesmerizing-pearl-harbor-tribute-was-inspired-by-near-disaster-on-the-sea/

For all the saints who from their labors rest (w/ video)

From Patheos-

As Anglican theologian N.T. Wright and many others have helpfully pointed out in recent times, this hymn more accurately reflects the Christian doctrine of the resurrection of the body than a lot of Romantic, Victorian, and modern hymns that conceive of the afterlife as sweet by-and-by (see Wright’s Surprised by Hope, esp. pp. 20-23).

The hymn as written has 11 stanzas. In this country, Episcopalians usually sing 8 verses (as in President Gerald Ford’s funeral at the Washington National Cathedral), other mainline Protestant denominations usually sing 6, and Catholics sing as few as two.

“For All the Saints” is a very beautiful hymn. I say that not as an opinion, but as an objective fact! Some art embodies transcendence and expresses human longing in objectively more beautiful ways than others. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do. You should! I only hope the images I chose did it partial justice.

More here-

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jacoblupfer/2016/11/for-all-the-saints-who-from-their-labors-rest-w-video/

15 Reasons Why We Should Still Be Using Hymnals

From Theology in Worship-

Unfortunately, many churches have done this with their hymnals, but I think they are important symbols for worshiping congregations. Here are some of the reasons why.

Musical

Hymnals actually teach music. We’re making less music than ever before. Oh, to be sure, there’s lots of music going on around us, but very few people are actually making it. We’re just consuming it, or at the very most, singing along with music someone else made first. But even an untrained musician can look at the words and music in the hymnal and learn to follow melodic direction and rhythmic value.

Hymnals set a performance standard. Contemporary worship music is based on recording instead of notation. This is endlessly confusing, and it opens each song up to individual interpretation. Without notation, it is exceedingly hard to sing well as a congregation. Hymnals fix that. Everybody has the same notation, so we all know how the song is supposed to go.

http://theologyinworship.com/2014/07/22/reasons-why-we-should-still-be-using-hymnals/

Are hymns dying?

From The Spectator UK-


I love a good hymn, so long as I’m not expected to sing it. Lusty declarations of faith sound ridiculous coming out of my mouth and embarrass the hell out of me, so I pretend that I’ve forgotten to pick up a hymnbook on my way in. If someone shoots me an accusatory glance, then I move my lips like John Redwood singing the Welsh national anthem. (Talking of whom, has it dawned on the jolly self-important Dr Redwood, former Fellow of All Souls, director of Rothschild’s, cabinet minister, etc., that one day he’ll be remembered only for that delicious video clip?)

The earliest Christian hymns were chanted — but when we talk about a ‘hymn’ in everyday speech we mean a harmonised sacred song in which every verse uses the same melody. As a form it’s mainly the creation of Lutherans, who understood that singable hymns were the perfect vehicle for their theology. Martin Luther was a rather good amateur composer: he wrote the words and possibly the melody to Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott, ‘a mighty fortress is our God’ — an image that still sustains his followers.

More here-

http://www.spectator.co.uk/arts/music/9135771/is-there-a-lovelier-tune-in-the-history-of-english-music-than-dear-lord-and-father-of-mankind/

Presbyterians stir debate by rejecting popular new hymn

From Religion Religion News-

Fans of a beloved contemporary Christian hymn won’t get any satisfaction in a new church hymnal.

The committee putting together a new hymnal for the Presbyterian Church (USA) dropped the popular hymn “In Christ Alone” because the song’s authors refused to change a phrase about the wrath of God.

The original lyrics say that “on that cross, as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied.” The Presbyterian Committee on Congregational Song wanted to substitute the words, “the love of God was magnified.”

The song’s authors, Stuart Townend and Nashville resident Keith Getty, objected. So the committee voted to drop the song.

Critics say the proposed change was sparked by liberals wanting to take God’s wrath out of the hymnal. The committee says there’s plenty of wrath in the new hymnal.

Instead, the problem is the word “satisfied,” which the committee says refers to a specific view of theology that it rejects.

Debate over “In Christ Alone” is a mix of church politics, the touchy subject of updating hymn lyrics and rival views of what Jesus’ death on the cross meant.

The decision to drop the hymn wasn’t made lightly, said Mary Louise Bringle, a religion professor and hymnwriter who chaired the hymnal committee. It was complicated by a foul-up with the rights for the song.

More here-

http://www.religionnews.com/2013/08/06/presbyterians-stir-debate-by-rejecting-popular-new-hymn/

Something Happened on the Way to Bountiful: Everyone Sang Along

From the New York Times-

Not long after the curtain rises on the second act of “The Trip to Bountiful,” the Broadway revival of the Horton Foote play at the Stephen Sondheim Theater, something unusual happens. Cicely Tyson, as Mrs. Carrie Watts, sits on a bus station bench in a small Texas town. She is on the run from her abusive daughter-in-law and henpecked son in Houston, desperate to see the family farm in Bountiful once more before she dies.

Overcome with emotion, she begins singing an old Protestant hymn, “Blessed Assurance.”

From the first note, there’s a palpable stirring among many of the black patrons in the audience, which the play, with its all-black cast, draws in large numbers. When Ms. Tyson jumps to her feet, spreads her arms and picks up the volume, they start singing along. On some nights it’s a muted accompaniment. On other nights, and especially at Sunday matinees, it’s a full-throated chorus that rocks the theater.

“I didn’t realize they were doing it until someone remarked to me how incredible it was that the audience was joining in,” Ms. Tyson said in a recent interview, referring to her preview performances. “I said, ‘Where?’ I was so focused on what I was doing that I didn’t hear it.”

More here-

http://theater.nytimes.com/2013/05/28/theater/cicely-tyson-and-blessed-assurance.html?_r=0

Hymn Marks 175 Years

From Florida-

As the Diocese of Florida’s annual convention gathered at St. John’s Church in Tallahassee, the congregation sang a hymn that had never been sung before. “In Every Place Where God Is Found” was commissioned in celebration of the Diocese of Florida’s 175th anniversary to communicate the diocese’s anniversary theme of “Procession: Unified in Mission”:

In every place where God is praised by many or by few;
in every heart where prayer breathes life and hope begins anew;
where ever searching leads to faith or love melts hearts of stone;
where new life rises from death’s hold;
God’s presence will be known.

As clergy and lay leaders processed and more than 400 people joined in singing the hymn, the theme of unity in mission came to life, said the Rev. David C. Killeen, rector of St. John’s.

“Right here in the state capital, downtown, there was this sense of witness to the wider world in procession into the church,” Killeen said.

Composed by Carl P. Daw, Jr., to the tune of “Kingsfold,” “In Every Place” exemplifies the diocese’s anniversary theme.

More here-

http://www.livingchurch.org/hymn-marks-175-years

Hymns a unique part of a renewed Ojibwe culture

From Minnesota-

When 30 people gathered recently for an evening service at St. Columba Episcopal Church, they recited liturgy like thousands of other church congregations.

But when they began singing, it quickly became clear that theirs was not a typical Minnesota prayer service.

A visitor would have recognized the melody to "What a friend I have in Jesus," but the parishioners sang in Ojibwe, thanks to the translations early missionaries made to help convert Indians to Christianity.

Music is a time honored part of worship in most religions. For many Ojibwe people in northern Minnesota, hymns are much more than an expression of religious devotion. They represent a unique piece of Ojibwe culture tribal that members are trying to preserve.

White Earth Tribal Chair Erma Vizenor, one of the singers at the service, said it's critical to keep the Ojibwe language alive.

More here-

 http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/253892/group/homepage/