Selling the New Hymnal

Preparing the way

Although it may be premature to talk about selling the new hymnal while it still only imaginary, a few points come to mind. First, critics who question the wisdom of producing a new hymnal in hard copy should be challenged promptly with factual rebuttals, and it would be a good idea for the committee to appoint someone to identify criticisms and respond to them. Second, regular progress reports should be supplied to the media. Third, some mechanism for receiving input from the "trenches" should be established. Finally, the way the hymnal is to be introduced when published should be given some thought along the way.

Seminaries

Some attention must be paid to our seminaries. There is already what seems to some to be an educational blind spot in our seminaries' failure to provide adequate instruction in worship and music. A few years ago there appeared in the Presbyterian Outlook a full page ad from one of our seminaries. It proudly listed all its faculty members and each one's area of responsibility. There was no one offering instruction in worship, let alone music and hymnody. Without some sense of direction in this area graduates are likely to be swept this way and that by the latest fads, and to make judgments without being informed, to the detriment of the congregations they may serve. One wonders if those who control the seminaries either think worship is not important, or are afraid to take a stand in any direction in an area that is somewhat controversial, and thus offend someone. In any case the boards of seminaries should be approached about the new hymnal, and provided some material that would be useful to their students. I can think of no better resource than the recent book by William S. Smith - "Joyful Noise - a Guide to Music in the Church for Pastors and Musicians" (2007). In the absence of formal instruction in church music, it should be required reading for every seminary student. [For details, visit www.providencehouse.com].

A Modest Proposal

There might be a project to record all the hymns and make them available on the internet. This may sound grandiose, but it could be done in a way that would give a strong sense of ownership of the new hymnal to the individual churches. First, it is technically very simple to take an audio recording and put it on a website in a way that a web visitor can hear it easily (assuming the visitor has a computer media player). If MP3 is used as a format, each hymn would probably use no more than 5mb of disk space, which, for 600 hymns, would translate into 3gb - a trivial requirement in today's world.

The task of producing the recordings should not be delegated to a single professional choir (the easiest solution), but could be parceled out to our 173 presbyteries. This would work out to 3 or 4 hymns per presbytery. The hymns could be separated into three categories, the first containing the most familiar hymns, the third the least, and the middle those in between. Then each presbytery would be assigned one hymn from each group. In each presbytery, a good location for recording (including a large room, good acoustics, and suitable organ) would be chosen, and choirs from the presbyteries' churches invited to participate in a recording session, which shouldn't take more than a few hours. The session might be expanded to a hymn-festival that included the three target hymns. The goal would not be to produce a perfect concert-style performance, but to present the hymns as they might be sung in worship. In presbyteries with many churches, a large room would be needed, but hearing a congregation of a thousand singing can be a thrilling experience. In some cases three different recording sessions could be held, each for one hymn. A standard format should probably be specified for most hymns; an example: 1st verse unison, 2nd verse parts, 3rd verse unaccompanied, 4th verse unison with optional free accompaniment. Most of the attendant expenses up to this point could be assumed locally. Seminary choirs could also be invited. What the committee would likely need to provide is portable equipment for recording, and professional people to operate it. It might be possible in some cases to depend on individual presbyteries (or churches within them) to provide recording equipment and personnel, but care would have to be taken to ensure that they met certain standards. Two full-time people would probably be needed for two years, with travel expenses. That could run into some money, but I suspect (I have had some experience in fund-raising for our local chapter of the American Guild of Organists) that the money needed could also be obtained locally. CDs also could be made and offered for sale - the entire project should fit on somewhat fewer than 10 CDs. Initially two or three presbyteries could be selected for pilot projects to assess the feasibility of the larger one.

From the individual church's point of view, this could give them a real sense of participation in the hymnal project, and would emphasize the importance of singing in a powerful way. The way the hymns would be assigned would probably need to be random, to minimize any perception that any one presbytery was favored over any other, and some political sensitivity would be needed within each presbytery. Organizationally, it might be best to approach the presbyteries through the synods.

Such a large project would require considerable organization, but the benefits to the individual churches and the publicity for the PC(USA) as a whole could be enormous.

Perhaps this is an impossible dream, but I offer it in the spirit of the passage from Proverbs (29:18) "Where there is no vision the people perish"