Comments on: "In the Bleak Midwinter," Old Hat or Cutting-Edge?

By: Talitha

Talitha — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 04:51:33 +0000

The pastor who supervised me in my internship had a similar problem, and started a hymnsing every week to deal with it. The hymnsing is now a beloved part of the service… it starts ten minutes before the service, and we only sing first verses. Those who don’t want to sing “i come to the garden alone” every single week simply walk in later (at 11 when service starts, proper, with a moment of silent meditation). This way no one gets mad that the pastor doesn’t know to choose their favorite hymsn.

By: Emily

Emily — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 19:00:15 +0000

I thought I was picking “old, familiar hymns” too. But people were quick to point out to me -usually in the receiving line after church – when I had included something new or unusual or difficult to sing.

We had 2 hymn sing Sundays this summer. For three weeks in May we had an insert in the bulletin asking for the people’s fave 3 hymns. The results have been helpful for me. Some that I expected, others that I was surprised by.

Another pastor suggested to me giving a copy of the hymnal to the organist or choir director and having him or her mark all the hymns the congregation knows. I think I’ve been here too long to do that now, but a good suggestion.

By: stushie

stushie — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 16:07:54 +0000

“Giving my heart” may be simplistic Adam, but in the end that’s what counts…or did you miss that in NT studies?

BTW, the Rosetti’s used to stay at a lodging house near Maybole (my previous parish) in the winter. A waterfall on the road is still called Rosetti’s Lynn (Scottish word for waterfall) today.

By: adamjcopeland

adamjcopeland — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 03:49:52 +0000

Thanks for all the comments, folks. It’s fun to hear your perspectives. @DennisS, the next PC(USA) hymnal will be out in around three short years (2013) and the list of songs will, hopefully, be made public as early as 2012. I know it might be hard, but I’d encourage you to wait! The wait will be worth it.

By: David

David — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 01:42:45 +0000

Adam, I use a worship resource by Dean McIntyre. It references the UMC hymnal but follows the lectionary so I just go to our hymnal and write in the appropriate numbers. As far as new hymns I’ve learned not to put any in too often but that once a month is okay. After five years they are learning that I like to try new songs that help us think in a new way about the scripture lessons.
There hasn’t been a Presbyterian hymnal used here since the red hymnal. I think it is because a large contingent of Methodist joined the congregation in the 50′s and they just weren’t familiar with the Presbyterian hymns.

By: DennisS

DennisS — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:24:59 +0000

I’m in my first call, and did not grow up in the Presbyterian Church. Here we have occasional worship committee meetings which include a sheet from me regarding which Scripture(s) I plan to preach and the theme. After reading the Scripture, the two or three others in the committee suggest the opening and closing hymns, as well as any special music.

Our organist/choir director is part of the committee, and then has a list of what is planned for upcoming Sundays – which helps with choosing of appropriate anthems. I choose the hymn of response – which is usually rather easy – something which I am reminded of and singing at some point during sermon preparation.

I don’t always go with the recommended open and closing hymns – quite often the closing hymn gets changed, and like this week, I’m adding a hymn during the offering (rather than have the organist play so that people don’t have to hold hymnbooks and pass the plate at the same time – which I don’t understand, but it seems to be the expected practice here).

I’m wondering how long until the new hymnal will be ready. We have the 1990 hymnal but would really like a newer one asap. We’ve had a donation to buy a new hymnal – and it’s been sitting there for a year or two already. I like “Worship and Rejoice” by Hope Publishing – easy to read, includes some more contemporary hymns, etc.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:11:53 +0000

Now I know that In the Bleak Midwinter is sentimental and combines western, romantic notions of Christmas with the actual incarnation story. I still love it. Lines like “heav’n cannot hold him nor earth proclaim, heav’n and earth shall flee away when he comes to reign” going from that into a description of the “Lord God incarnate” captures our remembrance of what God has done in Christ and points us in apocalyptic expectation of his coming again.

And I know the last verse is hokey and sounds like “all we need to do is give our heart to Jesus,” but when I sing this hymn I have the last verse of “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” running through my head. Giving our incarnated Lord our heart is akin to “love so amazing so divine demands my soul, my life, my all.” Plus, it never hurts Presbyterians to remember that the heart is as important as the mind in our faith life…

By: Steve F

Steve F — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:20:21 +0000

I worked at an Episcopal church while in graduate school and it was the first time I was responsible for picking hymns. I had no help on what they knew, I didn’t know the hymnal that well (1940 Hymnal), I was just learning the 3-year lectionary, and I always picked the wrong ones! My first Easter there, I failed to pick “Hail Thee, Festival Day,” and really caught it! We didn’t sing it in the Presbyterian church I grew up in!

Now, my favorite chore of the week is picking hymns – most weeks I pick the hymns based on what we know about texts chosen for attention (occasionally Vicki does it) and we run them by our pastor for his OK. Sometimes we give him some options when we are uncertain as to the drift he may be taking, and on the rare occasion he wants a change.

There are probably more sophisticated ways of keeping tabs, but we just have a Word document that we add the dates to the list of hymn numbers from the 1990, then have at the bottom a list of hymns in alphabetical order from other sources.

As far as “In the Bleak Mid-Winter,” I’ve always thought of it more as a choir piece than congregational number, and these days, as the Christian world is shifting to the southern hemisphere, it begins to be odd to place Christmas in such a Euro-centric world.

By: liz

liz — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:55:12 +0000

People seem to think there exists such a thing as a “familiar hymn” that everyone, everywhere- well at least all the Lutherans (could easily sub Presbyterians) knows. It’s the headache of the first few months of the call! But, I also really want folks to move beyond the “known” songs to hear the gospel- and law- of some “new” songs.

Personally, I love “In the Bleak Midwinter”- we had an Advent Devotional based on the hymn by Herbert Brokering… never got through it all because we left it at my folks’ some years back…

By: Christina Berry

Christina Berry — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:58:29 +0000

When I told my dad about congregation members complaining about wanting to sing the “old, familiar” music (meaning, “out of the old, RED hymnal”) he said, “Well, the old familiar hymns were new to them when they learned them!”
In that congregation I handed out cards at the beginning of the summer, requesting everyone’s top 3 favorites. I put all the results into a spread sheet and sorted out those that were in both hymnals. )Turns out only FIVE of the faves were only in the old red book.) Then we intentionally used those hit parade hymns throughout the summer. During the rest of the year, I consulted that list and used whatever was appropriate whenever I could.
This might work to help everyone have a shared list, and might help you with some idea of the standards that fall into their “familiar” category.
One Sunday, I grudgingly picked an old song from “Sing the Faith” that I can’t stand. But it went with the service, and I thought it would make everyone happy. The organist came to me with deep concern: “We’ll try this, but none of us has ever heard it.” To my great joy, we just left the song out.