Neither height nor depth, nor anything else
in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:39

Singing the Faith – the new Methodist hymn collection

18 months have now passed since the Music Resources Group published a suggested list of contents for the new collection on this website and in the Methodist Recorder. All your subsequent feedback has been carefully considered and we now have a list of contents that Faith and Order will recommend for authorisation by the Conference in June. You can view that list now by downloading the following pdf:

Singing the Faith Contents List June 2010

Barbara Bircumshaw, chair of the Music Resources Group and Professor Peter Brophy
editor in chief

Background to the new Methodist hymn collection

Traditional worship In 2007 the Methodist Conference authorised 'the preparation of a new 'baseline' collection of authorised hymns and songs for Methodist worship in succession to Hymns and Psalms'. The Music Resources Group was asked to present a full list of hymns and songs to the Conference in 2009. There are 17 members of the Group. They represent a wide cross section of the Connexion and have been committed to the task, meeting monthly with an occasional residential meeting to facilitate the work.

The aim is to produce a collection for congregational use that retains the best of the old and includes the best of the new, reflecting a diversity of theological and musical traditions in keeping with our Methodist heritage 'Born in Song'.

Contemporary worship The Group reviewed Hymns and Psalms and examined over 100 collections published since Hymns and Psalms in 1983 including individual, international and unpublished material. All the material in the draft collection has been chosen by our full committee. At present the list is incomplete with 702 items including 294 hymns from Hymns and Psalms. There will be additional material ensuring the collection has a balance of hymns and songs, reflects modern hymnody, issues pertinent to today and Methodist theology and doctrines.

We asked for your help by looking at the list of hymns which were available here and responding by 31 January 2009.

Next steps:

MRG response to the consultation on the proposed new hymn collection

The Music Resources Group is very grateful to the number of people who responded to the consultation on the proposed hymn collection. The responses were collated by staff at Methodist Church House and then evaluated by Revd. Brian Hoare. This was a considerable task as there were several hundred responses received through the website and in written form. It was encouraging to receive such interest, but hardly surprising as hymns and songs are so important a part of our Methodist tradition.

The Music Resources Group met with Brian Hoare to receive his Report and talk through his findings. There was broad support for a new collection and the MRG was seen to be moving in the right direction. There were those who wondered whether there should be a complete collection or a supplement to Hymns & Psalms and a few argued that a new resource is unnecessary with so much material already available in other collections used in churches across the Connexion.

Some responses highlighted the need to improve the overall balance of the collection in terms of writers and themes. As this is to be an authorised Methodist collection people felt strongly there should be an adequate representation of hymns by Charles Wesley as well as other historic texts, including John Wesley’s hymns and translations, and also a good balance of contemporary writers working in a variety of styles. Attention was drawn to weaknesses in the balance of themes, for example, in the Life and Ministry of Jesus and All Age Worship and the MRG is already aware of these shortcomings. There was concern about the place and use of psalmody, musical arrangements, the formats of the collection and whether the collection should be produced in printed and electronic form. People also felt that many hymns and songs were new to them and they could not access them easily.

Since receiving Brian Hoare’s Report, the MRG has revisited Hymns & Psalms and gone through all the hymns again and made some additions, in particular in relation to hymns written and translated by John and Charles Wesley . The most requested hymn was ‘In the bleak mid-winter’, which was voted the most popular Christmas Carol after we had left it out! It’s now back on our included list. We have also looked at modern material recommended to us and included further items. The Contents List has been revised in collaboration with the Faith and Order Committee and hymns and songs have been grouped under different sections and themes. This will enable us to look at the overall balance of the collection in respect of writers and themes, taking note of the concerns raised in correspondence received. The Music Sub-Group is continuing to work on musical arrangements and has received expert help from Paul Leddington Wright and David Peacock.
We are determined to create a resource which will be user -friendly for worship leaders, musicians and congregations alike, and that will be available in different formats. Members of the Connexional Team have taken this on board and have been working on issues concerning the production and cost of the resource.

The MRG has sought to adhere to the timescale agreed by the Methodist Conference but the issues raised by the public consultation and our consultations with Faith and Order and the Connexional Team have made it clear that in order to produce a collection of the highest possible quality, an extra year will be required to complete the process, and we will therefore be recommending to this year’s Conference that the draft collection is brought to the 2010 Conference ahead of publication in 2011. We believe that this will give time to produce an excellent collection for use in Methodist Churches in the twentyfirst century and also give opportunities for people to get a preview of the new material in 2009/2010. Members of the MRG will be pleased to respond to invitations to lead workshops for churches and circuits and to attend Synods.

Barbara Bircumshaw
Chair of the Music Resources Group