Presbyterian Committee on Congregational Song holds meeting, October 28-30, 2009

Overview

During its three days of meetings in late October 2009, the Presbyterian Committee on Congregational Song (PCOCS) refined and approved a language statement to guide its further deliberations about texts (see link); sought insights about process from a leader of the recent hymnal-creation committee of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; received reports from Research Services about what hymns from Sing the Faith and the Presbyterian Hymnal 1990 are being most used by congregations around the country; and continued giving full-group consideration to those hymns from the PH 1990 that did not gain immediate acquiescence in the summer of 2009 as belonging on the “No Brainer List,” but were considered by group members to be worthy of a second look. The majority of the meeting, however, was given over to small groups, whose foci included recently published hymnals of Presbyterians and other denominations, contemporary music, global song, and works (both traditional and contemporary) suggested through the open submissions process (open through June 1, 2010; see link).

Detail View

With apologies to Meredith Willson, the theme song for the latest PCOCS gathering in Louisville might well have been adapted from the score of his 1957 Broadway hit, The Music Man:

Think a little, talk a little,
think a little, talk a little,
sing, sing, sing,
talk a lot, think a little more . . .

Most of the thinking and talking and singing occurred within the specialized deliberations of three quartets and one sextet.

The sextet was a subgroup charged with considering works published in other hymnals but not appearing in the Presbyterian Hymnal of 1990. These other volumes under review include the “red” Hymnbook of the Presbyterian Church (1955); the United Methodist Hymnal (1989); Sing the Faith (the supplement published for Presbyterian congregations in 2003, close kin to the Methodist supplement, The Faith We Sing); the Book of Praise of the Presbyterian Church of Canada (1998); Church Hymnary IV (the most recent hymnal of the Church of Scotland, published in 2005); and Evangelical Lutheran Worship (the 2006 hymnal of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and in Canada). On the basis of work by subgroup members prior to the late October gathering, a list of some 675 recommended hymns was compiled, roughly one-fourth of which were reviewed during the day and a half of deliberations. The remaining three-fourths will be examined when the group next gathers in February. Those hymns and songs passing subgroup scrutiny will come to the full body of the PCOCS at a future meeting.

One of the three quartets devoted its work to contemporary music, searching out the best of the best from what is sometimes known in the vernacular as the praise and worship genre. The work of this subgroup was helped significantly by suggestions for a contemporary core, created at the request of the PCOCS by Greg Scheer (Music Associate at the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship), as well as a list of top songs for 2008-2009 from CCLI (Christian Copyright Licensing International); recommendations from participants on the PCOCS Facebook site; materials used at Montreat Youth Conferences; and a brainstormed list from youth conference music leaders provided by Gina Yeager-Buckley (Associate for Ministries with Youth for the PC(USA)). Close to one hundred recommendations were compiled and cross-listed from these sources as well as published collections (Sing the Faith; Lift Up Your Hearts; New Song; and Sing! A New Creation). With a solid core in hand, the subgroup turned its efforts to exploring how individual items from the core would fit into the liturgical, theological, and lectionary needs of the next congregational song resource.

A second quartet gave its time to exploring works, most of them in a more traditional hymnic genre, coming to the PCOCS through the open submissions process: a total of 134 pieces, each of which had already received two yes votes from a three-person review team working by e-mail in between face-to-face meetings. The majority of these were newly written texts or tunes by still-living authors and composers, but some were old favorites that had been sent to the committee with a request for consideration. Members of the subgroup (an editor, a text writer, and two professional musicians) read the entries aloud, discussed their poetry and theology, sang their melodies and harmonies, and carefully winnowed the collection to forty items to move forward for full committee review.

The final quartet devoted its attention to global music, spending significant time wrestling with questions about authenticity in the transmission of tunes from one cultural and musical idiom to another. Materials from an array of sources—particularly but not exclusively Asian—received attention at this meeting, resulting in an initial list of three dozen or so items to move to the full committee. Additional resource people are being identified to assist with the important process of honoring the diversity of ways in which God’s praises are sung by our sisters and brothers in faith from around the world.

Mary Louise Bringle
Chair, Presbyterian Committee on Congregational Song
November, 2009

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