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 The Verse
A monthly newsletter |
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The Hymn Society
in the United States and Canada
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March 2014
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Registrations are coming in, Lovelace Scholarship applications are coming in -- looks like a conference is going to happen soon! Don't miss out. Register as soon as you can to take advantage of limited enrollment options for masterclasses. We have an exciting and innovative program this year in Columbus, Ohio. You'll be glad you came!
One more reminder:
We have two working mailing addresses at present: our physical location and the older address. We still pick up mail at the old address and will continue to do so, but we encourage you to change your address book to reflect our new location. You do not need to include the Seminary's name in our address.
New Address:
The Hymn Society in the US and Canada
8040 Villa Park Drive, Suite 250
Henrico, VA 23228
Old Address
The Hymn Society in the US and Canada
3400 Brook Road
Richmond, VA 23227
Either way, we look forward to hearing from you!
Meanwhile, keep singing!!
Deb
Deborah Loftis
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2014 Conference in Columbus, Ohio
Registration is open!!
Follow this link to go directly to registration Register 
Tuesday Hymn Festival
On Tuesday, our festival will focus on Asian hymns led by Chi Yi Chen and Swee Hong Lim. They have gathered hymns from a number of Asian communities which you will delight in learning.
Chi Yi Chen, born in T'ai-nan, Taiwan, into a Taiwanese Presbyterian pastor's family, earned a degree from T'ai-nan Theological Seminary and College and a Masters in Choral Conducting from Westminster Choir College, Princeton, New Jersey. Her undergraduate studies with Dr. I-To Loh, FHS led to her interest in global church music and liturgy, and Asian hymnody. She has traveled throughout Europe, Asia, and the United States to various conferences and churches, and has been a workshop clinician at the Kodaly Choral Institute. Chi Yi also studied at Princeton Theological Seminary. Most recently, she served on the Presbyterian Committee on Congregational Song that reviewed and selected the content for the new hymnal, Glory to God, that will be showcased this summer in Columbus. Chi Yi served Monumental United Methodist Church in Portsmouth, VA, where she resides with her husband , Jeffrey Wolbrink.
Swee Hong Lim is the Deer Park Assistant Professor of Sacred Music at Emmanuel College, and the Director of the Master of Sacred Music Program. He also serves as Director of the Chapel for the worship life of Emmanuel College. Bef
ore joining Emmanuel on July 1, 2012, Dr. Lim served as an Assistant Professor of Church Music at Baylor University. Prior to his work at Baylor, he served as a Lecturer of Worship, Liturgy, and Music at Trinity Theological College in Singapore.
Lim is widely utilized as a leader for global seminars and conferences dealing with sacred music. He served as the Co-Moderator of the Worship Committee for the 10th General Assembly of the World Council of Churches for its meeting in Busan, South Korea (2013), and also as a member of the Worship Planning Committee for the 2011 Ecumenical Peace Convocation sponsored by the World Council held in Jamaica. From 2008-2010, he chaired the Board of Worship and Music for the Trinity Annual Conference of the Methodist Church in Singapore.
Perhaps Swee Hong's biggest Hymn Society claim to fame is that he studied with Michael Hawn, FHS at Perkins School of Theology! On at least one occasion, Michael said "my student has become my teacher."
Registration available
online and in the Winter issue of The Hymn
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 Lifting Hearts - Joining Hands - Raising Voices Let's Pretend -- Walk around in these shoes for a few minutes. You are a youthful pastor, freshly arrived at your new church. There is a congregation member who is willing to play the piano, but you do not have a professional church musician. At the same time, you care deeply about congregational song and recognize its importance in worship and in the faith formation of your community. Seminary didn't cover what to do next and you are on your own. Where do you go for help? Where do you find resources? OK, Seriously now -- We want The Hymn Society to be the first stop in this quest, and that is why we are looking to create The Center for Congregational Song. Certainly we hope our not-so-fictional pastor will attend one of our conferences, but if that is not in the cards (and it often isn't), we want to have resources readily available by phone and online. The resources of The Center for Congregational Song would be available 24/7 to people all around the world. Obtain some instruction materials quickly? We've got that. Attend a course online? We've got that. Find some go-to people in your geographic area? We can help with that. Mystified by your hymnal indexes? Piece of cake. The Center for Congregational Song could be this and so much more. This virtual community is not far away. Confident that the funds will be raised, the leadership of The Hymn Society is already putting the infrastructure in place to make this happen. But we cannot push the "start" button until we increase our endowment to support and sustain this valuable program. Please help with your support. --Jacque Browning Jones President-Elect |
Instrumental Music for Easter
If you are looking for easy to moderate instrumental settings of hymns, you might find helpful arrangments by Ken Friedrich on his website. There are 15 different instrument versions available. Shipping is included in the price. The newest collection is 52 Easter Hymns for the Solo Performer www.kfsbrasschamber.com/hymn-books.html |
Braille Hymnal Project
First Baptist Church and the Braille Lending Library, both in Richmond, VA, have partnered to produce a braille edition of the Celebrating Grace hymnal. Phil Mitchell, Associate Pastor for Christian Worship, was seeking a way to help blind members of his congregation participate more fully in the hymn singing as the congregation was enjoying a new hymnal in the pew racks. After finding that Celebrating Grace publishing company had no plans for a braille hymnal, Mitchell and several others came up with a plan and after two years are nearing completion of the project. They have produced a video about their work. http://richmondsftf.wordpress.com/gods-love-in-action/
To celebrate having the braille edition and to bless the work of the Braille Lending Library, located just down the street from the church, First Baptist is hosting a benefit concert on Sunday April 27 at 7:00 pm by Ken Medema, a blind singer-composer well-known and loved by many Christians. One of Medema's gifts is to improvise and compose story-songs in the moment.
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Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology
The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology is an amazingly extensive database of hymnological knowledge. It started out to be a new version of the classic Dictionary of Hymnology by John Julian, but the scope of the present project has far exceeded what Julian was able to do in his time. Part of the reason that the CDH can provide such information, all gathered into one place, is that there have been many people working on this project. Carlton R. (Sam) Young, FHS has edited the US articles and Margaret Leask is the Canadian editor. They have enlisted many folks on this side of the pond to contribute articles and I'm trying to determine just how many of our Hymn Society folks are involved. Attached is a listing of names - if we've missed someone, please send word to us so we can include everyone. As you'll see on this list, Sam and Margaret have kept many of us busy over the past year! Congratulations and Thank You to all who have contributed!!
Visit the CDH: http://www.hymnology.co.uk/
Contributors to the CDH
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Hymn Contest Winners
Macalester Plymouth Church announced the winners of its 2013 contest for a new hymn on Advent or Christmas. The winning text, "Newborn Child Now Sleeping" is by Jacque B. Jones. The committee awarded Honorable Mention to a hymn by Jayne Southwick Cool for her adventurous combining of a new text with a new tune and harmonization written specifically for the text. Her hymn is "A Mystery, A Miracle." You can read the full press release and the texts of both hymns in the attached press release. Congratulations to both winners!!!
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New Hymn Contest
Macalester-Plymouth United Church in St. Paul, MN announces the nineteenth annual international contest for English language hymn writers. The 2014 contest will be a search for a hymn text that celebrates God's presence in current social changes and changes in the church. It carries a prize of $500. All entries must be postmarked by December 31, 2014. For more information, view the attached flyer.
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Continuing Hymn Contests
"New Songs and Hymns for Renewal" is the theme for the new hymn contest sponsored by United Thological Seminary. Deadline for submission is April 25, 2014.
The New Room, John Wesley's Chapel in Bristol, England, has launched a hymn contest to commemorate 275 years since George Whitefield persuaded a very reluctant John Wesley to preach for the first time in the open air - an activity that led to the building of the New Room within six months. The theme is "Tell the World." Please see the attached pdf for details of the contest and submission rules. Deadline for entry is June 1 2014. Wesley Hymn Challenge |
Upcoming Events
March 28-29, 2014 --The next Ambassador Program workshop will be held at Augustana College in Rock Island, IL and will be led by Ginny Chilton and Meg Granum. There will be a Hymn Festival, "Telling Our Faith Story" on Saturday, the 29th at St. John's Lutheran Church at 2:00 pm. Flyer Our thanks to these two former Lovelace Scholars for this important outreach to college students.
April 27, 2014 -- Paul Stott will do an encore presentation of his sectional from the 2012 Annual Conference of the Hymn Society, "Walter Farquharson - Prairie Pastor and Hymn Poet" at St. Paul's United Church, Toronto at 2:30 pm.
Starting May 6, 2014 -- Hilary Seraph Donaldson will teach an 8-week, hands on course at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary, Ontario. The course is entitled, "Lift Up Your Voice: Leading the People's Song in Worship"
May 15, 2014 -- Robert Batastini, FHS will lead a hymn festival, "One in Faith and Love and Praise" at the Cathedral of St. Andrew in Grand Rapids, MI. The festival is sponsored by the National Association of Pastoral Musicians, Grand Rapids Chapter. May 23-25, 2014 -- Carl P. Daw, Jr, FHS will lead a retreat entitled, "Audible Grace: Promise and Challenge in Congregational Song." The retreat is sponsored by the Sisterhood of St. John the Divine in Toronto, ON. There will also be a Hymn Festival on Saturday, May 24, at 7:30 pm which is open to the public.
For more information see the attached flyer.
June 20-27, 2014 -- C. Michael Hawn, FHS will lead a workshop at the Perkins School of Theology, SMU, entitled "How Shall We Sing the Lord's Song" For more information see the attached flyer.
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Recent Events
February 23, 2014 - First Lutheran Church in Lorain, OH presented a hymn festival entitled "God's Resplendent Work Begun," the title coming from a line in Susan Palo Cherwien's hymn, "Come, Beloved of the Maker." The festival explored Epiphany themes of light. Brian Wentzel designed and led the festival, with the assistance of the choirs of the church. The program and an audio recording are posted on the church's website: http://www.firstlutheranlorain.org/firstmusic/2014resplendent.html
February 23, 2014 - A Hymn Festival entitled "Hymns through the Centuries" was presented by the San Joaquin Valley Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. The festival was led by Roy L. Klassen at Pilgrim Armenian Congregational Church, Fresno, California. The Pacific Brass from Fresno Pacific University, a Festival Choir comprised of three area choirs and several organists participated in the service. Our thanks to Laurell Huber for sending in a copy of the program.
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Looking for City Hymns
In 2013, Nancy Hardy was awarded a McGeachy Senior Scholarship, given to United Church of Canada leaders for research and development of new and prophetic resources. She is working on a project called "Worship in the City," a collection of hymns and prayers about the life and vitality of urban people. Do you know of or have written hymns that celebrate life in the city? Many of our present resources remind us of our responsibility toward poverty and pollution in the city, but do little to encourage gratitude for community and culture. If you have resources to share, Nancy would love to hear from you - she can be reached at hardyplant@sympatico.ca.
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The Palisades Community Church, a multi-denomination church in Washington DC is cleaning out our 90 year collection of choir music. We would like to give this music to any interested group or church. First come; first served. We would be happy to send it to you at no charge. (If you want more than 4 or 5 pieces and you would like to reimburse us for half of the postage, we would be grateful.) Please contact Beth at beth.mckinney@montgomerycountymd.gov
with your selections from the inventory and your shipping address. Thank you for adopting our gently used music and giving it a new home. A list of the anthems available may be viewed here.
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