Discipleship board proposes new hymnal

General Conference may
create committee to
revise songbook

United Methodist News Service
NASHVILLE, Tenn.—United Methodists could have a new hymnal by 2013 under plans endorsed by the General Board of Discipleship last month.
Elected board directors, meeting Aug. 22-25, voted to ask the 2008 General Conference to form a committee to begin developing a new hymnal.
If the committee’s work is approved by the denomination’s top legislative body in 2012, the new resource would replace The United Methodist Hymnal published in 1989. The new song and worship book would be the second official revision since the merger of the Evangelical United Brethren and Methodist churches in 1968—not including new books for specific racial/ethnic or language communities.
The Rev. Karen Greenwaldt, chief staff executive of the discipleship agency, pointed out that the current hymnal would be almost 25 years old by the time a new one could be ready for distribution. That’s “normally the life of a hymnal,” she said.
“What is the message being sent to young people who come to church and see a hymnal from 1989—a hymnal that is older than they are?” Greenwaldt said. “We need a new hymnal that picks up new hymns, new texts, new melodies, new words to old tunes that are being created and being sung in our churches. It is time to engage the General Conference in this question.”
The United Methodist Publishing House already has endorsed the project.
“Our research shows that The United Methodist Hymnal is widely used in all membership-size churches, but that there is also the strong desire for additional and new hymns and tunes to augment worship in a variety of styles and settings,” said Neil Alexander, head of the church’s publishing agency.
Alexander suggested a new hymnal would include musical styles such as jazz, spirituals and contemporary harmonies and a greater variety of accompaniment settings for guitars, keyboards and percussion instruments. It would draw more music from racial/ethnic communities and better serve contemplative settings such as Taize worship and special services for baptism and communion.
The denomination recognized the need for new music in widening worship styles in 2004 when General Conference formed a committee to study:
> Trends and measurement of congregational singing.
> Psalter, ritual and service music.
> Texts and tunes (including global and ethnic music).
> Implications of digital and other emerging technologies for worship and congregational singing.
> The Wesley hymns.
The committee, with membership from the discipleship board and publishing house, conducted research and listed 19 needs that include:
> New UM worship and music resources.
> Providing resources in a variety of ethnic and cultural styles.
> New UM resources for ethnic, global, praise and contemporary music.
While the committee agreed on the needs, it opted not to make recommendations to the 2008 General Conference and instead referred its findings to Greenwaldt and Alexander, who then proposed the development of a new hymnal to their respective agencies.
Dean McIntyre, discipleship board staff member and a member of the music study committee, said a key reason that no recommendations came out of the panel’s work was a lack of consensus over which new resource should get first priority. McIntyre said all agreed about the need for a new hymnal eventually.
Under the resolution endorsed by the discipleship board, General Conference would be asked to create a committee to develop “a single volume hymn and worship book with provisions for supporting resources in multiple media for adoption as an official hymnal of The United Methodist Church and for congregational use in the United States of America.”
The hymnal committee would be instructed to use non-discriminatory language guidelines developed by the 1989 hymnal revision committee.
Expenses for the project would be borne by the publishing house, though the agency has not yet developed a business plan with estimated costs.
The discipleship board is sending General Conference a separate resolution to establish a study committee to examine the need for “an official United Methodist hymnal for North American Christians of African descent in the Wesleyan heritage.”
A new Africana hymnal would be developed to complement other official worship resources listed in the denomination’s Book of Discipline. In addition to the 1989 hymnal and the Book of Worship, these include the Spanish-language Mil Voces Para Celebrar: Himnario Metodista and Come, Let Us Worship: The Korean-English United Methodist Hymnal.