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Hallo
again to all.
It
is the last Sunday of the church year; next week is the First Sunday
of Advent. Prepare ye.
 Last
week we wrote
about hymns and asked you to tell us your one favourite should
you be stranded on a desert island. Do read our compilation
of and commentary on the Top 20 hymns,
even if you didn't send one in. One early respondent, trying to be
silly, said ‘It all depends on whether the island is equipped
with an organ, an electric guitar, or a harmonica and tambourine.’
Now that we've had a chance to read all of the hundreds of replies,
we realise that this comment, in a way, was a summary of all our
responses.
Your
choices, comments, and stories about hymns
highlight the great diversity within the Anglican world. Some observations:
- Many respondents just sent us a hymn number in
the hymnal that they are used to using. If we could figure out what country they lived in, we were able to decode that number,
but otherwise we had to email them back asking ‘pray tell what country you inhabit’. We don't think this is because of
laziness, but because of a genuine misunderstanding about different hymnals in different provinces.
- The
hymn most favoured in the USA is not even listed in, to choose
one example at random, The New English Hymnal (1985).
- Answers included both ‘anything by Graham Kendrick’ and ‘anything
not by Graham Kendrick’.
- One person wrote a hymn and submitted it as his favourite.
His hymn uses a Graham Kendrick melody not found in the Cyberhymnal, our online reference.
 A recent
graduate of a theological college told us that he was taught that,
historically, music is the most contentious topic within congregations.
When we see
the disparate and passionate responses to our simple question,
we can certainly believe it. People
seem to be the most emotional not when their actions or bodies
are threatened, but when their identities are threatened. ‘Criticise
what I do, but not who I am.’ Music
is at the core of most corporate worship. In a sense, criticising
music is criticising the identity of the people who come to church
because of it. We know people who left the Anglican church because
they liked the music better in another. We remember a man who stopped
attending church, any church, because he was so outraged by the
playing of Advent music during 'the Christmas season' in early
December.
Some years ago we knew a young man who would phone the parish office
on Friday to learn what music would be used, then attend Sunday
service only if certain hymns were to be sung. And the only time
that we have ever heard angry shouting in our church was after
a Christmas Eve service once, an argument over whether the correct
tune for ‘O little town of Bethlehem’ is St
Louis or
Forest
Green.
We
suspect that those of us who favour hymn music from past centuries
are a dying breed, and that many of what we now think of as modern
hymn tunes will be the classics of the next century. There
will be church music as long as there is church, but the hymns
of the 22nd century will be accompanied by synthesizers and not
pipe organs. Maybe.
Our
own favourites? Brian's
is ‘Be thou
my vision’,
to Slane,
and Cynthia's is ‘Love Divine, All Loves
Excelling’, to Hyfrydol.
Simon prefers ‘Lo, He comes with
clouds descending’, to Helmsley.
Fred opts for ‘A mighty
fortress is our God’ to, of course, Ein
Feste Burg.
Peter named ‘Lord Jesus Christ’, sung to Living Lord. Gillian
named ‘Alleluia,
sing to Jesus’, again Hyfrydol.
See
you next week.
Last updated:
23 November 2003
URL: http://anglicansonline.org
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