Feb. 9, 2001 News media contact: Tim Tanton· (615)742-5470· Nashville, Tenn. {067}

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) – Take 575 local United Methodist church leaders, give them a new hymnal and put them in a hotel with the denomination's foremost musical minds, and you have the ingredients for one arm-waving, sing-your-heart-out event.

The Feb. 6-8 gathering, titled "The Faith We Sing," was that and more. Sponsored by the United Methodist Board of Discipleship and United Methodist Publishing House, both based in Nashville, the event was designed to introduce the new hymnal supplement, The Faith We Sing, and to give church worship leaders insights into how to use the book.

The introductory and training event turned out to be a celebration of the denomination's diversity in music and worship styles. It also was an empowering experience for the local church people, who heard the denomination's guiding lights tell them there is no wrong way to worship, and that the songs in the new hymnal supplement can be performed and used in many different ways.

"No single worship expression has a corner on the market to the exclusion of other expressions," said the Rev. Cynthia A. Wilson, during one of the event's general assembly sessions. That point was among 19 observations about worship made by Wilson, minister of music at Ben Hill United Methodist Church in Atlanta.

She and others described the hymnal supplement as a treasure of the church.

Coming soon to a pew near you, the 284-song supplement reflects a rich variety of worship traditions. A flip through the pages shows a wide breadth of global and ethnic music – Asian, African, Native American, Hispanic, European, African American, praise songs, Taize music, new hymns, and some oldies but goodies, such as "I'll Fly Away" and "Just A Closer Walk With Thee." Produced by the Board of Discipleship and the Publishing House, it is designed for use with the United Methodist Hymnal, published in 1989, and with other hymnals ecumenically.

"It's a book that kind of looks forward, but it also celebrates looking back," said Bill Gnegy, music resources director at the United Methodist Publishing House.

The first editions of the supplement came out late last fall, and if response to the training event and initial sales are indicators, the book is off to a roaring start. More than 150,000 copies have been sold so far, Gnegy said, and interest in the introductory event was so strong that registration had to be closed in advance.

The response has exceeded expectations, said Dean McIntyre, music resources director for the Board of Discipleship. "We have had people from all over, from every possible church worship and music style, church size (and) theological sensitivity," he said. The participants have included organists, dancers, choir directors, pastors, district superintendents, choir members, spouses and even a couple of children, he said.

All of the workshops and plenaries were recorded, along with some of the special events and worship, McIntyre said. The Board of Discipleship and Publishing House will be looking at ways to share the event and its resources with the rest of the church, he said.

Whatever the agencies do, Gnegy and McIntyre said it would be impossible to reassemble the caliber of session leaders that the introductory event offered. The roster read like a who's who of United Methodist hymnody: Wilson; the Rev. Carlton Young, composer, teacher and editor of the 1966 Methodist Hymnal and the 1989 United Methodist Hymnal; the Rev. Don Saliers, professor of theology and worship at Candler School of Theology in Atlanta; C. Michael Hawn, professor of sacred music and theology at Perkins Theological Seminary in Dallas; the Rev. Hoyt Hickman, editor of the supplement and former Board of Discipleship staff member; Mark Andrew Miller, instructor of sacred music at Drew Theological Seminary and music associate at the Riverside Church in New York; and the Rev. Dan Damon, a well-known hymn writer with several songs in the new supplement.

"It's hard to recreate this; it's just impossible," Gnegy said. "That's part of what makes this event so special."

The introductory event offered more than a dozen workshops plus three general plenary sessions and several worship experiences. The workshops themselves became worship opportunities as session leaders guided participants in singing hymns from the new book. Workshops addressed such topics as introducing The Faith We Sing to congregations; exploring the theology of the new book; gospel and ethnic music; hymn writing in the 21st century; Taize and service music; praying and singing globally; Christian prayer and social witness; planning worship.

Theology in the hymnal

Speakers emphasized that the supplement contains hymns for everyone, but that doesn't mean everyone will necessarily like every hymn.

"If a congregation isn't ready for hymns that are in here, there are other hymns that they are ready for," Hickman said, during a workshop on the theology of the hymnal supplement.

The hymnal committee tried to be sensitive to theological differences in the church as it worked on the book, Hickman told United Methodist News Service. "We tried to stick with the great tradition, broadly interpreted." The feedback has been very positive, he said.

The different views expressed in the hymnal represent a learning opportunity for people. "People who have majored in personal holiness and people who have majored in social holiness can learn from each other," Hickman said. Both are needed, he said.

During one of Hickman's workshops, a pastor asked how she could explain to a congregation that the Trinity isn't being changed when she refers to God as mother.

"I think we do it in a context where it is evident that this is not meant to be taken literally," Hickman replied. Throughout history, such references have been meant metaphorically, he said.

"They're all either directly from Scripture, or at least they're in harmony with Scripture," he said.

"There is a theological substance and depth to this collection," said Saliers, who also led a session on exploring the hymnal's theology. The book is richly Scriptural; it has a depth of tradition which is "sounded anew" with the contemporary settings; it's experiential or evangelical "in the proper sense"; and "it is for the intellect," meaning it has a prophetic word that engages the world's principalities and powers and that speaks to deep human hurts and needs, he said.

"Not everything in this book is going to be everybody's cup of tea," he said.

As he led his group through reading and singing the hymn, "Bring Many Names," Saliers noted that the references to God – as mother, father, young, old – are metaphorical. The song describes what God does when God is full in relation with us and fully incarnate, he said. "This is not a substitute for Trinitarian theology."

Saliers described a discussion he had once with some older people about their favorite hymns. When he asked them they liked particular songs, one person said: "When I hear that hymn, I hear my grandfather's voice." Others said they heard the squeak of the parlor organ, or the beat of their mother's heart as they laid their head on her chest long ago. Saliers described the role of hymns as "body memory." "Hymns are the body memory of our churches' tradition, the body memory of our spirituality," he said.

Leading his workshop participants through several hymns, Saliers at one point enthused that "This is gorgeous stuff."

"This is what we're in business for: forming people in this deep theology and spirituality," he said.

Using the book

During the event, the participants spent a great deal of time getting ideas for using the hymns in a host of ways – as processional songs, for prayer and meditation, for baptism and communion, to precede Bible readings, or, in Wilson words, for "setting up the preacher."

The hymnal supplement reflects the changes that have occurred since 1989 in how churches worship. Young noted that 143 of the supplement's songs are short forms, while 141 are long selections. In contrast, the United Methodist Hymnal has 35 short selections, he said.

"It appears that we are returning to a time of memory," Young said. Today's songs appear to be "moving away from multi-stanza hymns set to musically challenging tunes," he said.

Young and other session leaders focused on how to introduce the new hymns to congregations.

For example, a hymn can be spoken while the tune is played, or read initially and then sung in the later stanzas. Another helpful technique is to start the hymn in a lower key.

"I would urge you to always begin a new piece without an accompaniment. Always," Young told participants in one of his workshops.

Although the hymnal committee did its best to offer accompaniment for the songs, Wilson said, "Don't be married to that." For example, she showed how some songs that are typically played in an up-tempo style can work well when performed slowly.

The main hymnal was not forgotten during the event. "You don't have to feel like once you move into this supplement that you can't bring together the old and the new," Wilson said.

Participants were encouraged to be open to other ideas about worship styles and music. During his remarks in the event's opening plenary, Young took aim at the barrier posed by "the cultural and stylistic isolation of local churches."

"The fact is we don't worship together, we seldom share our worship spaces, and it is easy to assume we don't need or want to share each other's music," he said. "United Methodism remains as segregated by musical forms, styles and performance practices as it is by race and language. Perhaps these days of singing and singing will encourage us to chip away, if not break down, the musical walls of segregation in our own communities."

Wilson made similar points the following day and warned participants to be wary of rejecting other worship expressions. "Worship is not an option, but how we worship is," she said.

An exciting time

For members of the committee that developed the hymnal, the event was exhilarating.

"It's glorious," Hickman said. "I feel that all the work we put into it is amply vindicated."

Other hymnal committee members were Gnegy, Gary Alan Smith with the Publishing House, the Rev. Dan Benedict with the Board of Discipleship, and the Rev. Anne Burnett Hook, minister of music at Christ United Methodist Church in Franklin, Tenn., and former board staff member.

Hickman acknowledged that some of the hymns were being performed in ways that the committee might not have imagined during the workshop. "There've been a lot of good surprises here. I'm delighted about that."

Participants at the event celebrated the diversity. "The conference lent itself to all people (and) cultures," said Germaine Tropez, choir member and worship committee member from Cornerstone United Methodist Church in New Orleans. "It helped us to share and experience all people" and the universal nature of the music, she said.

A universal hymn book is important for the United Methodist Church, she said, considering "how broad and vast the members are." For example, her church's members include Africans, Vietnamese, Hispanics, blacks and African Americans, she said. It is important that the hymn book have songs that all people can relate to, she said.

"The biggest thing is going to be getting the congregations to accept a new book ... not necessarily to supplant the book we already have but to use it as a supplement," said her sister, Susanne Tropez-Sims, a choir member of Clark Memorial United Methodist Church, Nashville.

The women emphasized the importance of pastors and choir directors in determining how the new hymnal will be received in local churches.

Said Gnegy: "We need to think of ways to help churches use this music." To that end, a worship planner edition is being published, and the Publishing House and Board of Discipleship are putting out a compact disc with the hymnal's music and arrangements on March 1.

In addition to the worship planner and CD editions, the supplement is or will be available in seven other incarnations: a pew edition for congregational use; the accompaniment edition for music leaders and accompanists; the singer's edition for choirs and worship teams; a CD-ROM edition; an edition for MIDI, an electronic format that allows the player to control the key, tempo and other characteristics of the music; a simplified version, which will have basic keyboard parts and guitar chords; and a guitar edition. Four print editions are already out, and the remaining two print editions and three electronic editions will be out by March 1, Gnegy said.

On the second day of the event, Wilson spoke of the supplement in a larger context. Saying she believes the United Methodist Church has a handle on what the kingdom of God looks like, she emphasized the importance of being committed to "bringing down the walls that divide us."

"This resource is, I think, another step toward that."

*Tanton is news editor of United Methodist News Service.