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Happy 1st Birthday, Singing the Faith!

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• Celebratory Autumn offers

One year ago, Singing the Faith was published: a collection of840 hymns and songs, that would take an estimated forty hours tosing from beginning to end.

The collection was published by Hymns Ancient and Modern on behalfof the Methodist Church, after seven years of deliberation,theological scrutiny, musical collaboration and editing. To date,nearly 98,000 copies have been sold across all the publishededitions.

Peter Brophy, who was Editor-in-Chief of Singing the Faith, said:"Having completed the editorial tasks for 'Singing the Faith' itwas first of all a delight to handle the published book - all thosescraps of paper, urgent emails and even more urgent phone calls nowtransformed into a hymnbook - a physical testament to the dedicatedvolunteers who worked for a Biblical seven years to bring it tofruition.

"But it has been even more of a delight to visit Methodistchurches from Cornwall to Berwick-on-Tweed and from London toLancashire during the last twelve months and be handed a copy of'our new hymnbook' by the steward at the entrance, and then to joinin worship, whether traditional or modern, using what I trulybelieve is a precious resource given to us by God."

The Singing the Faith Plus websiteoffers a wide range of free resources to help people get the mostout of the collection, with lectionary suggestions and creativeideas for using hymns, for singing or in other ways. The site isalso fast becoming a popular platform for new hymns and anencouragement to emerging writers.

"This beautifully presented hymn book is transforming worshipthrough the sheer diversity of the hymns and songs contained withinits pages," said the Revd Dr Mark Wakelin, President of theMethodist Conference. "Singing the Faith is the one hymn and songbook you have to have."

The Revd Barbara Bircumshaw, Chair of the Music Resources Groupwhich was responsible for producing the collection, said: "I amthrilled by the success of Singing the Faith. It's great that it isbeing widely used by congregations around the Connexion - more thanI ever dreamed possible. And it's very humbling to have played apart in bringing Singing the Faith to birth! I pray that it will bea valuable tool for worship and witness, for glorifying God andsharing the Gospel in the twenty first century."

In response to huge demand, a special one-off printing of an organedition was organised, and a Braille version of the collection isbeing developed in partnership with the TorchTrust. Additionally, a 40-CD set of backing tracks for all ofthe hymns and songs is in production, for use by churches that donot have an organist or music group.

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1. Hi-res photos to accompany the story can be found online here.

2. Additional endorsements for Singing the Faith:

"As with all good worship resources, Singing the Faith is anenriching and exciting mixture of old and new. There aresignificant international offerings and it is rooted both in soundtheology and the needs of the present age."
Michael King
Vice-President of the Methodist Conference 2012/13

"God has not given up bestowing upon us gifts of creativity,poetry and
tune, rhyme and rhythm, song and harmony, profundity andpoignancy,
joy, insight, beauty and truth. Singing the Faith makes thisplain, capturing
all these gifts and more, and offering a rich and varied diet toGod's
diverse people today."
The Revd Dr Martyn Atkins
General Secretary of the Methodist Church & Secretary of theMethodist Conference

3. You can sign up for regular newsletters, including Singing theFaith Plus here.