Why is hymn singing – or any kind of worship music – important to you? Or is it?
It’s important to the members of the Hymn Society in the U.S. and Canada. From July 11 to 15, about four hundred people will gather at Samford University in Burmingham, Alabama to explore all the aspects of congregational song, from composing to copyright, from pedagogy to publishing, under the theme “Sing of Justice! Sing of Peace!” Those who attend them find them exciting, exhausting, invigorating—and then they return to their own congregations bringing new hymns, new insights and new energy for congregational song.
My first Hymn Society conference was in Toronto in 1994. Anyone who attended that one will still say, “Oh! Toronto – that was a hot one. Almost as hot as 1984.” To make matters hotter many of the downtown venues were not air-conditioned.
Don Anderson and I had begun work as co-editors of the revision of The Book of Praise. New and familiar jostled together in a kind of Hymn Society kaleidoscope. Names I had only seen printed in hymnals now came alive and attached to real people. Dan Damon gave a sectional on what might have been his first hymn collection. He accompanied his congregational songs with a jazzy swing, and talked with attendees about playing “off the page.” It was there that I met Emily Brink for the first time. If memory serves, she gave a workshop on editing hymnals. It was there that I learned that Carleton Young, the editor of the United Methodist Hymnal, was called “Sam.” I also learned that Canadian Sylvia Dunstan, who was just being recognized as a fine new hymn-writer, was seriously ill with cancer. (She died that year.) Margaret Clarkson, with whom I had had one brief phone conversation a few years previous—I was nervous, she was testy—was made a Fellow of the Hymn Society.
I had my first experience with hymn festivals, a staple of Hymn Society conferences. The one I remember was at Metropolitan United Church. We sang “When Long Before Time,” accompanied on the organ as arranged by George Black. At that time, all serious church music was accompanied by organ; piano was a step down, both literally and liturgically, guitar was an embarrassing intrusion, and percussion rhymed with concussion, and was about as welcome.
I remember meeting with a group of organists after the festival, and hearing their…(what shall I call them?)…humorously critical assessments of the organs and those who played them.
It was exciting. And hot.
There have been many Hymn Society conferences since then. They have never lost their magic for me, even now that I’m intimately familiar with all the back-stage work: the planning, the personalities and the politics. I think they still move me because people work together for the common goal of lively, vital congregational singing. And from each conference I bring back with me at least one moment where I say—to myself or anyone who will listen—this is why I love hymns!
Besides the Hymn Society in the U.S. and Canada, for those who live in Ontario, there is a lively local chapter: the Southern Ontario Chapter of the Hymn Society. The SOCHS holds many hymn events featuring both local and international leaders of congregational song.
So back to my opening question…why do you love hymns? What part do they play in congregational life for you?
While you’re thinking, here are some websites.
