2014 Conference in Columbus, Ohio
Early Registration extended to May 15!
Follow this link to go directly to registration Register 
Masterclasses
There is room remaining in each of the Masterclasses so register quickly to make sure you can take advantage of these great learning opportunities. Keep in mind that being in the Masterclass means you'll just get to attend one regular sectional -- in Session III on Wednesday morning.
Beginning Songleading - Andrew Donaldson and Suzi Byrd
 
Andrew is well-known to many Hymn Society members. He is a past-president and has often assisted in festival and worship leadership. A Canadian, he is currently living in Geneva and is a consultant in worship and spirituality for the World Council of Churches
Suzi, a 2011 Lovelace Scholar, is an MTS graduate of the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University. She is also classically trained in Germany as a vocalist and brings her two areas of study together in her passion for song enlivening.
Advanced Songleading - John Bell, FHS
John's skills as a worship leader and song enlivener are known around the world. A member of the Iona Community, he worked for many years with the Wild Goose Music group and is at the forefront of introducing global song through publications and workshops.
Because this class is for advanced students who are already experienced in congregational songleading, observers will be permitted in these sessions.
Leading from the Organ - Jan Kraybill
Jan is the principal organist for The Community of Christ (showcasing their new hymnal this summer) and the Conservator of the Julia Irene Kauffman Casavant Organ at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, MO. Many conference attendees will remember her artful playing in a variety of styles at our closing festival in Winnipeg in 2012.
Leading from the Keyboard - Jorge Lockward
Jorge is Director of the Global Praise Program of the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church, and Minister of Worship for a new United Methodist church in the Northwest Bronx. He is a former Executive Committee member and this summer will also co-lead one of our hymn festivals.
Leading with an Ensemble - Ben Brody
Ben Brody, associate professor in church music at Whitworth University in Spokane, coordinates music for campus worship services. He serves also as director of music at Colbert Presbyterian Church in Colbert, WA.
Leading in the African American Tradition - Raymond Wise
The Rev. Raymond Wise, widely educated here and in Europe in music, dance, and theater, holds the PhD. in Music Education from The Ohio State University. His dissertation on African American Gospel music is but one aspect of his deep immersion in African American musical traditions. He has organized multiple choirs as founder of the Raise Productions and The Center for Gospel Arts program in Columbus and has composed over 600 musical works. He has taught courses on gospel music at Ohio State and at Trinity Lutheran Seminary, our host school for the conference.
Registration available
online and in the Winter issue of The Hymn
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 Lifting Hearts - Joining Hands - Raising Voices Two of the Fellows of The Hymn Society share their thoughts about the importance of the campaign
Carl P. Daw, Jr., FHS and former Executive Director of The Hymn Society
There are many aspects of the Lifting Hearts, Joining Hands, Raising Voices campaign that offer new opportunities and merit support, but I want to mention just one feature that I feel deserves special attention: the development of a redesigned website that will include new features as well as expand on what we can already accomplish through this medium. I would especially like to see, for example, a comprehensive index to The Hymn, something people have long expressed a wish for. Such a resource would be a wonderful reminder of work that has been done already and could point to possibilities for new research might stimulate fresh tune and text developments. Also, I believe it has the potential to engage people who have never before considered becoming members. This is just one of the reasons I am contributing to this campaign. It may not be the one that grabs your attention, but there are many more dimensions to choose from. I hope you will find several that engage your interest and encourage you to add your support to this effort.
Paul A. Richardson, FHS
President of the Hymn Society, 1994-1996
Cause, Calling, and Community
Susan and I have made a commitment to the Center for Congregational Song for several reasons. First, this is an important cause, looking, with the Spirit's guidance, to the future of work in which we've engaged for decades in classroom and congregation. Second, the cause comes from a calling: to equip and enable the people of God to worship with their whole selves. Third, the Hymn Society, as a community spanning theological and cultural traditions, enlivens an ecumenical expression of the body of Christ in the world. Combining cause, calling, and community naturally leads to commitment, so that the work we share will have not only a goodly heritage but a hopeful future. There you have it: a three-point sermon with an alliterative outline (in grateful recollection of Austin Lovelace, I repeat his observation that "painful alliteration is unnatural"). Surely, readers of The Verse can supply their own poems-and commitments.
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A Special Invitation from Choristers Guild
Hymn Society Members and Friends - If you work with children's or youth choirs, or would like to develop a children's choir program in your church or school, we invite you to consider attending the Choristers Guild Institute, an ecumenical summer certification program for Directors of Young Singers in Churches and Church Schools. The certification process is designed to strengthen directors' musical and pedagogical skills and to equip them to effectively integrate children in worship. Successful graduates of the three-summer program receive Choristers Guild "Certified Director of Young Singers" Certification, a valuable and respected professional credential, and become part of a close and supportive nationwide network of Institute alumni.
The 2014 Choristers Guild Institute will be held July 20-26, 2014 at Wingate University, near Charlotte, NC. For more information and to register, visit www.choristersguild.org/institute or call 1-800-CHORISTER.
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Hymn-based Compositions
Two more reviewers share their evaluations of hymn-based compositions. Thanks to Brad Bennett for choral reviews and Lynn Thompson for organ reviews. Bennett reviews Thompson reviews
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Music Conference at Union Presbyterian Seminary
We at the Leadership Institute are very excited about the upcoming music conference, Faith in Our Music: Many Voices, Diverse Chords, Common Hopes, September 23-25, 2014. This three-day conference will combine diverse worship experiences with interesting, relevant workshops to help pastors, musicians, worship committees, and anyone who loves music to experience the wide varieties of music available to us in worship.
The conference features John Bell, from the Iona Community in Scotland; Amanda Powell, expert in global music; and Warren Cooper, who in well-known for spiritual jazz music.
Visit the website, www.upsem.edu/music_conference to find more information and registration.
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News of Members
Mary Louise Bringle was the guest of Samford University on March 6 and 7, as clinician with students and faculty (Eric Mathis and Paul Richardson, FHS) in music and worship. In various settings, she spoke about hymn writing, matching of texts and tunes, the editing of Glory to God (the new PCUSA hymnal), and vocation. She delivered the homily in a vespers service built around her texts for Lent. She also recorded interviews that will be posted on the web site of anima: The Forum for Worship and the Arts (www.anima.samford.edu).
David Haas, who has devoted much of his professional life to catechesis, received the Emmaus Award for Excellence in Catechesis from the National Association of Parish Catechetical Directors in April. This award honors someone with a national or international reputation in the field of catechetics and religious education who has made a significant contribution to Catholic catechesis through writing, publishing or teaching over a period of at least 10 years.
Jacque Jones and Amanda Husberg won the South Congregational Church Anniversary Hymn Competition, Kennebunkport, Maine. And, Amanda Husberg won two of the three parts of a 100th Anniversary Hymn Competition for the Grandfather Home Competition, NC. She won in the contemporary and children's divisions. On April 27, 2014 a choral program of African American song, performed by five college and community choirs from Atlanta, was held at the Martin Luther King, Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College. The program featured "Stand By Me: A Celebration of African American Song" by Stephen M. Lee.
Andrew Pratt has posted two hymns at http://hymnsandbooks.blogspot.co.uk/ for the World War One Centenary. All royalties from their use from now to December 2018 will be donated to SSAFA - an organization to help the families of service members. http://www.ssafa.org.uk/
Hilary Donaldson is proceeding with her Break into Song video series. On Saturday, March 22 in the Chapel at Emmanuel College, Hilary led a group of singers in the first portion of the videos. The next filming will be Saturday, May 10 from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Eastminster United Church.
The 2014 Schoenstein Competition in Hymn Playing is pleased to announce the names of the three judges:
Prof. Eileen Guenther, President of the American Guild of Organists; Associate Professor of Church Music at Wesley Theological Seminary
The Rev. Dr. Carl Daw, Jr,FHS Hymn writer; Adjunct Professor of Hymnology and Curator of the Hymnological Collections at Boston University School of Theology; Chaplain, Boston Chapter AGO
Will Sherwood, Director of Music & Organist at First Unitarian, Worcester; Dean of Worcester MA Chapter AGO; Artistic Director, Mechanics Hall Organ Series; Owner & CTO, Sherwood Hosting LLC.
The general public is warmly invited to participate as the singing congregation in the final round of the competition, scheduled at 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 22, 2014, at Christ Church, 0 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA (the day before the national convention in Boston of The American Guild of Organists). All enquiries should be directed to Dr. Stuart Forster at stuartforster@aya.yale.edu
The Center for Church Music has launched its website! Hymn Society members who have contributed include Barry Bobb, Nancy Raabe, Paul Westermeyer, FHS, and Carl Schalk, FHS. Check out the site and its resources:
http://cuchicago.edu/about-concordia/center-for-church-music
Amanda Powell and Suzi Byrd recently led the worship and music for the annual gathering of the United Methodist Women. Over 10,000 gathered for the meeting.
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Church Music Search
The Music Ministry of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA, is pleased to announce its first Church Music Search, a contest for composers and authors. This annual and international search calls for the creation of congregational hymns, choral anthems and orchestral music that engage and exclaim liberal Christian theology and associated themes. Each year a different musical category and theological theme will be selected to resource Pullen and other theologically-liberal congregations with artistic and meaningful church music.
The 2015 search is for an SATB choral anthem suitable for adult choirs with keyboard accompaniment (organ or piano). Other optional instrumental parts may be included. The text of the anthem should express the meaning and celebration of Easter from a theologically-liberal viewpoint.
An award of $1500 will be given to the creator of the winning selection (or divided equally between author and composer). Though the Pullen Music Ministry will retain the right to print and use the winning selection in perpetuity, copyright will remain with the creator(s) and a publisher will be sought for the winning composition.
Entries are submitted electronically and will be accepted through February 1, 2015. Find submission guidelines and enter at: www.pullen.org/musicsearch.
For additional information contact Larry E. Schultz at lschultz@pullen.org.
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The Hymn - Now Available Online in Full-text
Great news from our Director of Research, Tina Schneider!
The Hymn and the Papers of the Hymn Society are now freely available full-text through 2008 at HathiTrust. HathiTrust is an organization of universities which have scanned books, journals, and other materials to "establish a repository to archive and share their digitized collections." The University of California and The University of Michigan had already digitized The Hymn and the Papers, but they were not openly accessible due to their copyright status (like a copyrighted book in Google Books). Through a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives copyright agreement, The Hymn Society is retaining copyright of the materials, and the works must always receive attribution. The materials can be used only for noncommercial purposes, and they can't be distributed in a transformed or remixed state. The visibility, and more importantly, the use of hymnological research provided by The Hymn Society should increase dramatically as a result of this agreement with HathiTrust.
The Hymn can be found here:
http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000533466
The Papers of the Hymn Society can be found here: http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/003294598
For more on the Creative Commons agreement: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
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Continuing Hymn Contests
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.
"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
May 4, 2014 -- C. Michael Hawn, FHS will lead a hymn festival focused on Creation and the Environment at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Richmond, VA at 4:00 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
March 23, 2014 -- "A Festival of Hymns Celebrating the Music of Sterling Procter" was held at Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, TX. The choirs of five area churches participated under the direction of Michael Cox. Al Travis was organist. The festival drew over 1500 in attendance honoring a much respected composer in the Dallas - Fort Worth area. April 24, 2014 -- "Was Blind but Now I See: The Emmaus Journey in Word and Song" was presented at the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in Richardson, TX. The hymn festival was led by John Thornburg, Geoffrey Moore, C. Michael Hawn, FHS, Brian Hehn, Joanne Reynolds , and Deborah Carlton Loftis. Christopher Anderson was organist. The program and script is available from the office. April 27, 2014 -- Paul Stott made an encore presentation of his Winnipeg conference sectional, " Walter Farquharson - Prairie Pastor and Hymn Poet " at Trinity-St. Paul's United Church, Toronto. The event was sponsored by the Southern Ontario Chapter of The Hymn Society.
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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. The deadline for contacting her is June 30.
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New Publication -- "In Melody and Songs" by Isaac Watts
Edited by Adrienne Tindall and Morgan Simmons, this is a collection of 100 "lost" texts from Watts' psalm versions, published in 1719. Isaac Watts, known as the "Father of English Hymnody," is the author of the beloved "Joy to the world! the Lord is come!", as well as "Our God, our help in ages past" and "When I survey the wondrous cross." "In Melody and Songs" is an immediate photocopy resource for churches and music ministers. 90 new tunes by established composers, plus 15 public domain tunes, set the (edited/updated) texts.
A pre-publication price of $22.00 is offered until May 1, 2014, and includes priority shipping. Darcy Press http://www.darceypress.com/
Copies will also be available at the summer conference in Columbus, Ohio.
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Church Musician's Library Available
The office has received word that the working library of Alice Rushmer Lyon is available from her daughter. Mrs Lyon was a church organist for over 50 years in the Mohawk Valley. Here's what Martha Lyon says about the collection:
"This collection consists of roughly 125 hymnbooks, 25 books about hymns, and 20 books about "doing" church music well. All of the books suffer from age. Pages are yellowed. Covers are worn and soiled. I believe that all are complete, with the exception of portions of covers in some instances.
I have included all of her collection in this list. Perhaps there are some "gems". Perhaps they are all readily available in abundance. I honestly have no idea."
Ms. Lyon would be willing to work with interested individuals either to meet them and deliver the books by car or work out arrangements to ship the library.
Interested parties could contact her via e-mail (lyon@northnet.org); by phone (315 343-8332); or by USPS. (Martha Lyon, 123 E. 3rd St., Oswego NY 13126)
A complete bibliographies of the hymnals and books on church music is attached here. Hymnals Books on Church Music
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Upcoming British Conferences
There are two conferences in England in 2015 that you may want to attend. It's not too early to plan international travel, so here are the details.
The joint meeting of our Hymn Society with HSGBI and IAH will be held at
Robinson College, Cambridge. The conference will begin with registration on Sunday, 26th July 2015 with the Conference programme beginning on Monday and concluding on Friday 31st July. It is anticipated that there will be at least one optional outing day on Saturday, 1st August. The Conference theme will be: Hymns in Liturgy and Life. Revd Michael Garland is convening the group which will be organising the Conference. Details
The third biennial conference of Christian Congregational Music: Global and Local Perspectives will be held at Rippon College Cuddesdon, Oxford on August 4-7, 2015. Details
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