Exploring Then Let Us Sing

 

When sister-in-law Shirley (a blog reader) retired as music director at Crossroads UC in Kingston her final service was focussed on music and she made the choices for what we sang. We were pleasantly surprised that we knew all but one of her excellent selections, many from Voices United and More Voices. Even though she was leaving her role she made sure that the choir had copies of the latest music resource called Then Let Us Sing. She isn't stuck in the past and that was a gift to the congregation. 

This evening I'll join with Dianne, the music leader at Trenton United for the first of two sessions considering the music history of the United Church over 100 years and singing several selections from Let Us Sing. Next week we'll sing even more of the new-to-us hymns, choruses, and songs for every aspect of the Christian year. 

Amongst the obersvations I'll make this evening are: 

Six Hymn Books and Supplements in the History of the United Church

  For nearly the first half of the 100 years of the United Church The Hymnary was our book and some congregations held on for dear life, some well nto the 1980s.

 In the next 50 or so years there have been five more including:

 the red Hymn Book (1971) joint Anglican and United Church hymnbook (nobody really liked it.)

 the green Songs for a Gospel People (1987)

 Voices United (1996) – not even in this century

 More Voices (2007)

 and now Then Let us Sing (2025).

 This may seem like a lot, and even too many. Still, it's interesting that it's been 18 years between More Voices and Then Let us Sing — consider: 2007 was the year of the first iPhone --  most of the children and young people in our congregation were not born when More Voices was published.

Working on these sessions has been an eye-opener for me. When I scan through The Hymnary now I see hymns I love -- Be Thou My Vision; Ride On, Ride On in Majesty -- yet not the magnificent I Feel the Winds of God Today for which the lyrics were written in 1901. Despite the nostalgia for some much of the book feels stale and dated. 

When St. Andrew's Sudbury was a test congregation for Voice United in the 1990s there was someone who warned me that they would walk out of worship if we sang Sydney Carter's I Danced in the Morning. 

Through the years I led lots of worship services in nursing homes and we always sang familiar oldy-goldy hymns because the people present were, well, oldy goldies. It was the respectful thing to do. 

In congregations where we hope that the Holy Spirit is at work for the present and future we really must be open to fresh expressions of our Christian faith -- whether we like it or not, it seems to me! I've been in worship settings where the praise music is lively and even uplifting yet the theology is ghastly. I call it "Jesus is my boyfriend" music. I'm grateful that we continue to explore faithful expression in changing times. 

Ah-men, Ah-men, Ah-ah, ah-ah-men.