Local Preachers’ Group on Hymns and Worship Songs
Notes of meeting held 1st December 2008
Eight members met on this occasion. To mark the beginning of Advent the meeting opened with prayer and the singing of HP 77: Joy to the World.
The intention had been for each of us to bring any new(er) collections of hymns and songs which we had used or thought of using, to share our resources. This was somewhat overtaken by events, in that just that weekend the consultation list for the proposed new hymn book for the Methodist Church had been published on the website http://www.methodist.org.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=opentogod.content&cmid=2493. John Summerwill had printed off copies of this for us, and also copies of the index to Hymns and Psalms (HP) very helpfully marked up to indicate what was ‘in’ and ‘out’.
So we spent the evening on our immediate impressions of that list. The first – and perhaps most striking – was the negative one: the number (532 on John’s calculation) and identity of the items from HP proposed to be omitted. That includes many by Charles Wesley, although of course the most often sung remain and some others have obviously been retained for their historic or devotional value.
The problem about looking at the proposed new inclusions is having access to the text where they are relatively unfamiliar. At least having brought our own modern collections meant that we were between us able to find and think about quite a number of these. This exercise served to re-emphasise what has emerged at previous meetings, e.g. there are real issues about quality of writing, accessibility of language, singability (much will depend, as it has in HP, upon choice of tunes). Some of the new choices were welcomed, others raised questions – including about their theology.
We recognised that there is a need to provide material for a wide diversity of people. But who is it aimed at? Is it primarily for existing congregations, or intended to provide more material which is accessible for those who are only occasionally involved in worship? We also discussed which of the churches in the circuit would be likely to want to have it.
Responses to the consultation are requested by 31st January 2009. We agreed that we would each want to consider whether to send individual responses about particular inclusions or omissions. But at our next meeting we will think about any general response we want to make. In particular we have agreed to think about the various sections of the list – the items on particular theological themes or for particular liturgical seasons - to see if they provide sufficient good material e.g. for Lent or the whole Easter season.
It was also agreed to circulate the text of the report approved by the Conference so as to give us more background about the parameters within which the Music Resources Group is working.
During the meeting we had the opportunity to sing one or two old and new items, and concluded with “Hail, gladdening light”, more familiar to some of us than others (HP 644 – 3rd century and still in!).
We meet next at John Summerwill’s on Monday 19th January 2009 at 7.30 pm.
SH