There was a time when the faithful in the heavily Dutch corners of the Midwest would not have been able to sing along if the organist played the gospel classic “Precious Lord, Take My Hand.”
True, some may have recognized the hymn that Mahalia Jackson sang at the 1968 funeral of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., since this was the civil rights leader’s favorite: “Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on, let me stand. I am tired, I am weak, I am worn. Through the storm, through the night, lead me on to the light. Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home.”
But by 1987, this beloved African-American spiritual had been added to the Christian Reformed Church hymnal. A generation later, it has achieved the kind of stature that puts it in the core of the “In Death and Dying” pages of the church’s new “Lift Up Your Hearts” hymnal.
The Episcopal Hymnal was published 1982 – 31 years ago. Since then we have seen a supplement and a hymnal for African-American congregations, and more places using projected words though not many. Lots of churches print the whole service hymns and all in a booklet. I don’t hear any plans for a new Episcopal hymnal and in the present declining state of the church don’t think one can be afforded. But an ecumenical hymnal would be a good thing.
We continue to use the Hymnal 1982 (though I hate the thought of singing gender-neutral hymns) and the African American hymnal Lift Every Voice and Sing…..Volume 2, and we’re not an African American congregation. LEVAS 2 is a very good hymnal, and it is suitable for every occasion.
There are actually at least 5 (maybe 6?) authorized hymnals or supplements: Hymnal 1982; LEVAS II; Wonder, Love, & Praise; Voices Found; El Himnario; and I think a praise hymnal, though it might not be official, just popular.
We use the first four, with Hymnal ’82 and and LEVAS in the pews and the rest printed as needed. I use seasonal booklets, so I usually choose 5-6 hymns from the hymnals we don’t own and put them in as seasonal hymns, courtesy of RiteSong.
I’m increasingly surprised at how diverse WLP and Voices Found can be – some of the stuff is very traditional, some very new. Yet, I still have requests for very nice hymns that show up in hymnals from other congregations. We’re particularly bereft of hymns suitable for children (particularly in smaller congregations).
I’ve moved from staunch “BCP-Only – hate the booklets” to full-surrender and draw from all of our liturgical resources. They give me the pastoral and liturgical breadth we need. But, with the fragmentations comes greater time spent keeping up with everything. The joy of discovering something new and nice generally makes it worth it, though.
2/3 of the hymns in the 1982 Hymnal are never sung. Of those remaining, many have have been altered for theology or political correctness, or both. Two of the most sung, Onward Christian Soldiers and I Sing a Song of the Saints of God, were left out, and only put back in because of an outcry from the laity. None of the hymns, especially the more “modern” ones have guitar chords. There is no acknowledgement that Christian music didn’t stop in circa 1950. The Lutherans are currently upset because the writer of In Christ Alone wouldn’t let them change the theology of substitutional atonement because all that blood stuff is offensive. Now why would I want a bunch of pc institutionalists doing a common hymnal?
David, the worst thing TEC ever did to a hymnal happened when they re-wrote many of them to make them gender neutral. That should [i]never[/i] have been permitted. I am also concerned about people’s reluctance to either try new hymns or to try alternate tunes of familiar hymns; some of which are easier to sing than the so-called ‘standard’ tunes with which we’re familiar…..not meaning, of course to denigrate them. I’ve been a chorister for over forty years, and I’ve pretty much sung them all, so I speak from experience.