Anyone who has read my blog over the last few days can see I’ve been interested in hymnology, and particularly how it affects the lives of Unitarian Universalists. I keep looking for an ideal solution, particularly for those us who come from particularly small congregations of Christian Unitarian Universalists, and I will continue to look… Continue reading In praise of the words-only hymnal
Category: Hymns
Singing in church with recorded music
I keep running into sites — Unitarian Universalist but mostly not — with MP3s or other files with hymn tunes ready to use as accompaniment for churches without an instrumentalist. Presumably ones that could be described with one or more of the following adjectives: small, poor, remote, fragile or disorganized. A church for which this… Continue reading Singing in church with recorded music
Distributed activity: filling in Singing the Living Tradition at Hymnary.org
If you look at the Singing the Living Tradition page at the über-useful Hymnody.org site, you’d think it has two hymns in it. I think the hymn-interested Unitarian Universalist community should fix that. So first, does any one have a clean spreadsheet or list of all the first lines? If not, can we build one?… Continue reading Distributed activity: filling in Singing the Living Tradition at Hymnary.org
Why so many hymnals then?
Yesterday, Unitarian Universalist minister Steve Cook commented As a late-in-life amateur singer, I’ve come to understand the issues of hymnology you raise with more appreciation than ever before. Stuffed into boxes in church closets, attics and basements, I’ve run across some of the more specialized hymnals for young people and so forth that we produced… Continue reading Why so many hymnals then?
The lost would-be Unitarian hymnal
The old joke that Unitarians believe in “one God at most” lives again in the paucity of resources we develop, projects we plan or visions we tolerate. Today, it’s “one idea at most” — and they’re rarely new. One option at most for anything with Unitarian Universalism, even though our ancestors both on the Unitarian… Continue reading The lost would-be Unitarian hymnal
Looking for the next age of hymnals
Long time readers know that I love hymns, and I love hymnals, but I’ve been buying comparitively few lately. There are fewer new ones to buy. As it happens, I took hymnology in 1995 (or 1996?) while in seminary. In those days, the Hymn Society of the United States and Canada was housed at Texas… Continue reading Looking for the next age of hymnals
“A Hundred Unitarian Sunday Circles” (1895)
Moving back another generation from the Lay Centers I wrote about last week. A HUNDRED UNITARIAN SUNDAY CIRCLES What is the next aggressive missionary movement for the Unitarians of this country to give their attention to? I believe it is the establishment of religious Sunday circles, or what I may call simple parlor churches, in… Continue reading “A Hundred Unitarian Sunday Circles” (1895)
List of hymns in the League of Lay Centers hymnal
A listing of the hymns in the Service and Hymn Book for the Unitarian League of Lay Centers, by incipit and by section. The hymns themselves are unnumbered; the number is the page. (Nearly all are one page long and no more than one hymn is on one page.) I’ve also outlined the book’s liturgical… Continue reading List of hymns in the League of Lay Centers hymnal
A hymnal from Fellowship Movement prehistory
Reading Bright Galaxy is making me re-visit the scattered history of earlier Unitarian efforts to organize lay-led congregations, including the League of Lay Centers. This was active, I believe, c. 1907-08. [Correction: These were “Centers” and spelling changed; but I believe there was another attempt with “Lay Centres”.] February 1908 issue of Unitarian Word &… Continue reading A hymnal from Fellowship Movement prehistory
The red hymnal on Earth 2
So, Hubby and I sometimes imagine a version of Washington, D.C. according to an alternative historical timeline, on a planet we call Earth 2. With today’s realities a bit different, changed by what-could-have-been. The garden variety stuff of science fiction. And somehow this thought brings me to the thought of Jewish liturgics. OK: I watched… Continue reading The red hymnal on Earth 2