Singing the
Faith.
In 2011,
the Methodist Church will have a new hymnbook entitled
‘Singing the Faith’, officially authorised for use in
Methodist worship alongside ‘Hymns and Psalms’ (1983),
which is familiar to all of us, and the ‘Methodist Hymn
Book’ (1933), well known to older members with long
experience of Methodism.
Methodists
of a former generation treasured the 1933 book, but
Hymns and Psalms never seems to have won the affection
of the Methodist people to the same extent. Since it
was published it has experienced intense competition
from a number of sources, including those inspired by
Mission England and the Spring Harvest movements, those
inspired by the Iona and Taizé Communities and also the
musical and poetic offerings of the ‘World Church’.
All these sources have offered vast amounts of new
material in the last 30 years and the new book achieves
a fair balance of material from these contemporary
living sources alongside the traditional and timeless
which remain in current use.
In
preparation for the arrival of ‘Singing the Faith’,
Charlie Bensley and I have been looking at hymns that
Methodists have used since Methodist Union in 1932, and
the variety of influences that have conditioned their
usage and in some cases their falling out of use. The
evening service on 26 September will give us an
opportunity to share our discoveries in a ‘Songs of
Praise’ service format, and they will be assisted by Rev
Philip Hilstrop who has agreed to play the organ and
piano at that service. Later in the autumn and winter
of 2010/11 selections of new material from ‘Singing the
Faith’ will become available for trial use in advance of
the publication of the whole collection and I hope to be
able to organise another service or event to sample this
material when it becomes available.
Methodism
has famously been said to have been ‘born in song’ and
Methodists have always sung their faith, their hymns
being well founded in scripture. Charlie and I hope to
see as many of you as possible on 26th
September so that we can celebrate our spiritual
heritage in hymns and songs.
Godfrey
Talford
Link to "Singing the Faith" website |
