wfn.org | Hymn writers maintain craft as contemporary worship grows

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May 19, 2004  News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn. 7
E-mail: newsdesk@umcom.org 7 ALL-I{208}

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A UMNS Feature
By Amy Green*

Colin Gibson is a hymn composer whose material includes hair and fishbowls. 
 
He also writes about global conflict, environmentalism and homosexuality. He
celebrates our diverse hairstyles in a hymn about God's inclusive love for
all. In another, he equates our feelings of inadequacy with the image of
Christians in a fishbowl yearning for the ocean. He aims for a broad audience
by pairing modern themes with traditional music, he says.
 
"I'm quite sure music slips under the closed door very often. If I can
inspire conservatives to embrace a broader perspective through my music, that
makes me happy," says Gibson, a leader in the Methodist Church of New
Zealand. He has written some 600 hymns, which have been translated into at
least four languages. 

"Music has no political allegiance and no theological allegiance," he says.
"It's open territory, so we can meet each other and discuss things in an open
field of music."
 
Many composers are striving to assert their art's relevance at a time when
hymnals and traditional worship styles are giving way to more contemporary
Christian music at some churches.

Congregations are eager to embrace today's youth with worship steeped in the
Christian music they hear on the radio - which continues to enjoy sales
growth in a sluggish music industry, says John Styll, president of the Gospel
Music Association. 
 
"Churches are finding if they use this kind of music they grow, and if they
don't use it they shrink," he says.
 
Methodist hymn composers say their art is thriving. They note its long
history in the Methodist tradition and point to the hundreds of hymns penned
by Charles Wesley, whose ministry in the 1700s with his brother, John, formed
the root of Methodism. Wesley is known for "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," "O
For a Thousand Tongues to Sing" and "Christ the Lord is Risen Today."
Composers say hymns are as much a part of worship as the sermon and readings
from the Gospels.
 
"It's the heartbeat of the church," says the Rev. Carlton R. Young, editor of
the United Methodist Hymnal. "It's difficult to think of a gathering of
United Methodists without song."
 
Many of today's most prolific Methodist hymn writers live outside the United
States. They include England's Andrew Pratt, a Methodist minister who has
written the verses to more than 250 hymns and received honorable mention in a
contest seeking new hymns. The contest was organized by the Hymn Society,
based at Boston University's School of Theology, a United Methodist seminary.
 
Like Gibson, Pratt addresses modern themes in his hymns - the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks and war casualties, for example. He believes hymns endure
because they address these issues theologically better than a contemporary
Christian song can.
 
"Worship songs tend to have less depth and do not address doubt and
difficulty in a realistic way," he says. 
 
Jane Marshall, a United Methodist hymn composer in Dallas who has
collaborated on 70 published hymns, uses traditional music on some and more
contemporary music on others. She believes many of today's youth prefer
traditional hymns to contemporary Christian music, and she cites growing
interest in Taize and compline services, contemplative services rooted in old
Christian traditions using candles, chanting and meditation. 
 
"It's some of the younger people who have tired of the praise and worship,
and not all of them but some of them want more than that," she says. "Those
young people love a formal service. They love the reverence and silence. They
love more prayer candles and all the things you would associate with the
early Roman Catholic Church."
 
The Hymn Society advances the art by offering resource materials and
organizing international searches for hymns addressing modern themes, such as
Alzheimer's disease. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the society
put together a collection of hymn verses for congregations to mark the
one-year anniversary. The society also organizes an annual conference that
includes a festival of hymn performances. 
 
"Hymns continue to be written," says Carl Daw, executive director of the
society. "More hymns were written both in the United States and Great Britain
in the last quarter of the 20th century than were written in the first
three-quarters put together." 
 
Many are published in hymnal supplements that denominations continue to churn
out. Hymns thrive because they help define a denomination's beliefs, Daw
says. For example, where would Lutherans be without "A Mighty Fortress is Our
God"? 
 
"Hymns have so often been the characteristic expression of various ages in
the history of various churches. What you sing helps define what you
believe," he says. "The Methodist faith is largely expressed by what people
sing. ... 'Non-singing Methodists' is like a contradiction in terms." 
# # #
*Green is a freelance journalist based in Nashville, Tenn. 

 
 

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United Methodist News Service
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