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Churches turn to hymnals, old and new, for words of comfort
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October, 2001
In their struggle to develop worship services that would offer hope and courage to hurting congregations in the days and weeks after September 11th, different congregations are making decidedly different choices of hymnals.
Some congregations have found themselves returning to the older Pilgrim Hymnal in order to sing such songs as My Country ’Tis of Thee and the Star Spangled Banner, saying newer hymnals do not have the patriotic music their congregations long to hear during a time of national crisis.
“In this time, every community is holding on to things that have meaning in their roots as they look into an unknown future,” said John White, pastor of the First Congregational Church of Dudley, who returned the Pilgrim Hymnals to the pews after September 11th.
A parishioner sings a hymn in front of the U.S. flag at the First Congregational Church, UCC, of Rowley during a recent service.
This Is My Song
This is my song,
O God of all the nations,
a song of peace for lands afar and mine.This is my home,
the country where my heart is;
here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine.But other hearts
in other lands are beating
with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.New Century Hymnal, #591. Copyright 1934, Lorenz Publishing Co. Printed by permission.
Others have found that the New Century Hymnal, published by the United Church of Christ in 1995, has new words of comfort for the age-old problem of war.
Harvey Joyner, pastor of the First Congregational Church of Haverhill, UCC, pointed to hymn #476 in the New Century Hymnal, which begins with the words: “My life flows on in endless song; above earth’s lamentation … Through all the tumult and the strife, I hear the music ringing.”
“I felt that was the hymn of the moment,” Joyner said.
James Crawford, senior pastor at Old South Church in Boston and chair of the committee that developed the New Century Hymnal, said the committee talked long and hard about hymns relating to citizenship and the nation. He said the committee was concerned by the militaristic, nationalist language in some of the older hymns.
Crawford uses the new version of America the Beautiful that appears in the New Century Hymnal as an example of the way the committee attempted to cross the boundaries of nationalism.
“I remember we were trying to find citizenship hymns that would work, and we were singing America the Beautiful,” he said. “A latino on the committee said ‘that’s not my America.’ An African-American said ‘that’s not my America.’ Overnight, Miriam Therese Winter wrote new verses that referred to America as two continents and that included indigenous people. It was a sensational moment for us.”
