Church hymn singing has evolved over 300 years

United Methodist News Service
LONDON—When Charles Wesley began writing his more than 7,000 hymns back in the 18th century, hymn singing was not part of Anglican worship life.
In fact, until 1821, hymn singing was illegal in the Church of England.
Wesley, remembered Dec. 18 on his 300th birthday, was creating something for the Anglican Church for which it had no use, said church music scholar S T Kimbrough.
“Hymn singing was considered something that dissenters (non-Anglicans) did,” he said.
In the early days of the Methodist movement, it was in small group meetings, called bands and classes, where Wesley’s hymns were sung.
“Hymns were commentaries on faith,” Kimbrough explained. “People learned Scripture through hymns. People carried hymnals around with them.”
But in the multimedia, multicul-tural 21st century, where does hymn singing fit in? Is it a relic of another age, or does it still have value today?
The Rev. Donald Saliers, emeritus William Cannon professor of theology and worship at UM-related Emory University in Atlanta, maintains that hymn singing continues to help Christians learn the essential truths of their faith.
“Hymns are poetry that lives to deepen Christian faith,” Saliers said. “Hymns encode memory and make it accessible to generations.”
That may explain why those who no longer go to church or even claim a faith still want to sing Charles Wesley’s “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” and other traditional carols at Christmas, Saliers said.
“There is something about the way in which hymns and carols accumulate memory and experience,” Saliers observed.
During a study of hymn singing practices some years ago, Saliers asked a group of older people what made their favorite hymn so special.
One woman told him that when that she heard her favorite hymn, it brought back the smell of church suppers.
Another said that when listening to “How Great Thou Art,” she could hear “my grandmother’s voice.”
“These women were offering their own spiritual history mediated through their senses,” he explained.
Both Saliers and Kimbrough said they believe that keeping alive the legacy of Charles Wesley and other great hymn writers can necessitate finding new tunes that help bring old classic texts to life.
“As you move culture to culture, 19th-century Victorian tunes don’t necessarily speak to anyone,” said Kimbrough.
Both point to contemporary hymn writers such as Fred Pratt, Brian Wren, Bernadette Farrell, Shirley Erena Murray, Ruth Duck and others who, influenced by the Wesleyan hymn-writing tradition, have continued to create new hymns to feed and nurture the 21st-century spiritual imagination.
“Eye-opening and ear-opening” developments regarding hymns also are occurring in the global church, observed Kimbrough.