Changing of the Hymnals
07/01/12 05:27
Last night was the twelfth night and we have made the transition from the season of Christmas to Epiphany. Epiphany is a season of variable length in the Christian Calendar, lasting from Christmas until Lent. Christmas, of course, is a fixed date on the Gregorian calendar, while Easter’s date is based on the cycles of the moon. There are many different traditions surrounding the celebration of Epiphany. In some churches the celebration is a single day, in others it is observed as an eight-day Feast. In many mainline Protestant churches, the day of Epiphany is observed on the First Sunday after January 6. The Sundays between January 6 and Ash Wednesday are marked by counting the weeks from January 6 (First Sunday after the Epiphany, Second Sunday after the Epiphany, etc.).
Epiphany is the traditional season for blessing houses. In some traditions, chalk is used to mark the letters CMB over the doors of churches and homes. The tradition of marking doors dates back to Jewish times, but the letters CMB come from Christian traditions. Some believe that the letters are the initials of the traditional names of the three wise men, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar. The names are not found in the Bible, but rather come from traditional stories outside of the Bible. Further, it is unlikely that that is the source of the letters, thought it may be a way to remember them. More likely, the letters are from the Latin phrase Christus mansionem benedicat: May Christ bless this house.
There are lots of traditions that employ symbols of light in connection with Epiphany. The word comes from Greek and means “manifestation” or “striking appearance.” It is the day we celebrate the revelation of Jesus to all the world and not just to a select few persons. Certainly there are traces of ancient pre-Christian traditions that celebrated the return of light in the northern hemisphere.
In many of our homes and traditions, cleaning is part of Epiphany traditions. We take down the Christmas Tree, store the decorations, clean up, put things away and prepare for a new season. At our church, the nativity set is put into storage, the poinsettias are moved from the sanctuary, the tree is taken down and stored, the advent wreath and candles are put away for another year, and we do a general clean up around the place.
Another tradition that we seem to observe around this time is the changing of the hymnals. There is a story around that tradition. It all starts with the simple fact that there is no such thing as a perfect hymnal. All hymnals are finite and have only a certain number of songs. Inevitably, there are songs that are not included. Inevitably, we will want to sing some of the songs that are not in the hymnal. In addition, hymns keep evolving. The words are changed. The melodies and harmonies are rearranged. More than a small amount of arguments go into the choices of words. Some want to change hymns to reflect a different theology than might have been embraced by the hymn writer. Others want to change words to make political or social statements.
I have a small collection of hymnals from other congregations and other times. One of my oldest hymnals, from the nineteenth century, has an introduction in which there is a defense of the then new hymnal. It is clear that the committee who designed the hymnal had felt the sting of criticism even before it was published. There had been controversy about how many new hymns to include and which traditional songs to print. That argument has surrounded every hymnal of which I am aware.
The United Church of Christ invested a great deal of time and energy in the production of the New Century Hymnal that was published in 1995. It was larger and contained many more hymns than the 1974 United Church of Christ hymnal that was not very popular in churches and did not sell well. Many United Church of Christ congregations didn’t purchase the 1974 hymnal, but rather continued to use either the Pilgrim Hymnal, published in 1958 or the Evangelical and Reformed Hymnal, published in 1941.
Our congregation had used the Pilgrim Hymnal since the early ‘60’s, when it replaced an earlier version of the Pilgrim Hymnal. The hymnals were used so many times that the books were falling apart. Sometime in the eighties, the decision was made to have the books re-bound, so there are a couple of different colors of covers in our set. When the decision was made to purchase the New Century Hymnal for our congregation, there was spirited debate over whether or not that was a good choice for the church. I was new to the congregation at the time, so I listened carefully to what was being said. At one point I reflected back to those who were debating the issue the observation that it seemed to me that the problem wasn’t with the new hymnal, but rather with the idea of getting rid of the old hymnal. That thought caught on and before long we set about getting the New Century Hymnal and arranging for a system to keep the Pilgrim Hymnal as well.
Two hymnals in our pew racks just didn’t work. We ended up with a set of attractive library book carts so that we can store one set of hymnals while the other hymnals are in the pews. So far our congregation has a strong preference for the Christmas Carols that are in the Pilgrim Hymnal, so those hymnals are put into the pews at Christmas time every year.
When Epiphany comes, we switch back to the New Century Hymnal. That means rolling the carts into the sanctuary, taking the Pilgrim hymnals out of the pew racks and putting the New Century Hymnals in their place. Then the Pilgrim hymnals need to be put into the carts and rolled into storage.
There is no shortage of volunteers willing to do the task. However, I like the job for some reason. When I have the opportunity, I enjoy making sure that the hymnals are all distributed correctly, all placed in the racks facing the same direction, that the racks are cleaned of old bulletins, envelopes, etc. and that the pew bibles are all in their places. I’m not very picky about a lot of things, but I do seem to like to have the hymnals place out “just so.”
But I think the most important reason that I like the job is that I enjoy walking through every pew in the church, looking at the sanctuary from every angle. As I walk through the pews in the sanctuary where I have served for more than a decade and a half, I know where many of the members of our congregation sit regularly. I can think of them and get a glimpse of how the front of the church looks from that particular place. Putting the hymnals into the pews is a form of reflection and thought about the people I serve.
So I changed the hymnals yesterday. It is a new season. There will be many changes, as is true every year. I think we are ready.
Happy Epiphany!
Epiphany is the traditional season for blessing houses. In some traditions, chalk is used to mark the letters CMB over the doors of churches and homes. The tradition of marking doors dates back to Jewish times, but the letters CMB come from Christian traditions. Some believe that the letters are the initials of the traditional names of the three wise men, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar. The names are not found in the Bible, but rather come from traditional stories outside of the Bible. Further, it is unlikely that that is the source of the letters, thought it may be a way to remember them. More likely, the letters are from the Latin phrase Christus mansionem benedicat: May Christ bless this house.
There are lots of traditions that employ symbols of light in connection with Epiphany. The word comes from Greek and means “manifestation” or “striking appearance.” It is the day we celebrate the revelation of Jesus to all the world and not just to a select few persons. Certainly there are traces of ancient pre-Christian traditions that celebrated the return of light in the northern hemisphere.
In many of our homes and traditions, cleaning is part of Epiphany traditions. We take down the Christmas Tree, store the decorations, clean up, put things away and prepare for a new season. At our church, the nativity set is put into storage, the poinsettias are moved from the sanctuary, the tree is taken down and stored, the advent wreath and candles are put away for another year, and we do a general clean up around the place.
Another tradition that we seem to observe around this time is the changing of the hymnals. There is a story around that tradition. It all starts with the simple fact that there is no such thing as a perfect hymnal. All hymnals are finite and have only a certain number of songs. Inevitably, there are songs that are not included. Inevitably, we will want to sing some of the songs that are not in the hymnal. In addition, hymns keep evolving. The words are changed. The melodies and harmonies are rearranged. More than a small amount of arguments go into the choices of words. Some want to change hymns to reflect a different theology than might have been embraced by the hymn writer. Others want to change words to make political or social statements.
I have a small collection of hymnals from other congregations and other times. One of my oldest hymnals, from the nineteenth century, has an introduction in which there is a defense of the then new hymnal. It is clear that the committee who designed the hymnal had felt the sting of criticism even before it was published. There had been controversy about how many new hymns to include and which traditional songs to print. That argument has surrounded every hymnal of which I am aware.
The United Church of Christ invested a great deal of time and energy in the production of the New Century Hymnal that was published in 1995. It was larger and contained many more hymns than the 1974 United Church of Christ hymnal that was not very popular in churches and did not sell well. Many United Church of Christ congregations didn’t purchase the 1974 hymnal, but rather continued to use either the Pilgrim Hymnal, published in 1958 or the Evangelical and Reformed Hymnal, published in 1941.
Our congregation had used the Pilgrim Hymnal since the early ‘60’s, when it replaced an earlier version of the Pilgrim Hymnal. The hymnals were used so many times that the books were falling apart. Sometime in the eighties, the decision was made to have the books re-bound, so there are a couple of different colors of covers in our set. When the decision was made to purchase the New Century Hymnal for our congregation, there was spirited debate over whether or not that was a good choice for the church. I was new to the congregation at the time, so I listened carefully to what was being said. At one point I reflected back to those who were debating the issue the observation that it seemed to me that the problem wasn’t with the new hymnal, but rather with the idea of getting rid of the old hymnal. That thought caught on and before long we set about getting the New Century Hymnal and arranging for a system to keep the Pilgrim Hymnal as well.
Two hymnals in our pew racks just didn’t work. We ended up with a set of attractive library book carts so that we can store one set of hymnals while the other hymnals are in the pews. So far our congregation has a strong preference for the Christmas Carols that are in the Pilgrim Hymnal, so those hymnals are put into the pews at Christmas time every year.
When Epiphany comes, we switch back to the New Century Hymnal. That means rolling the carts into the sanctuary, taking the Pilgrim hymnals out of the pew racks and putting the New Century Hymnals in their place. Then the Pilgrim hymnals need to be put into the carts and rolled into storage.
There is no shortage of volunteers willing to do the task. However, I like the job for some reason. When I have the opportunity, I enjoy making sure that the hymnals are all distributed correctly, all placed in the racks facing the same direction, that the racks are cleaned of old bulletins, envelopes, etc. and that the pew bibles are all in their places. I’m not very picky about a lot of things, but I do seem to like to have the hymnals place out “just so.”
But I think the most important reason that I like the job is that I enjoy walking through every pew in the church, looking at the sanctuary from every angle. As I walk through the pews in the sanctuary where I have served for more than a decade and a half, I know where many of the members of our congregation sit regularly. I can think of them and get a glimpse of how the front of the church looks from that particular place. Putting the hymnals into the pews is a form of reflection and thought about the people I serve.
So I changed the hymnals yesterday. It is a new season. There will be many changes, as is true every year. I think we are ready.
Happy Epiphany!