New hymn compilation awaits Anglican voices
https://archives.anglican.ca/link/article43832
- Author
- Frankling, Sean
- Material Type
- Journal Article
- Journal
- Anglican Journal
- Date
- 2022 May
- Author
- Frankling, Sean
- Material Type
- Journal Article
- Journal
- Anglican Journal
- Date
- 2022 May
- Volume
- 148
- Issue
- 5
- Page
- 1, 6
- Notes
- "As this article was being written, 'Sing a New Creation', a supplement to the 1998 hymnal 'Common Praise', was set to be released -- and was said to be already attracting interest both inside and outside the country. And what's more, the project was begun and led by volunteers. Since the 1970s. church practice had been to publish a new hymnal every 25 years or so, and a supplement about 10 years after each new edition comes out, says Kenneth Hull, a retired professor of music at the University of Waterloo and the convenor of the committee that compiled the new supplement" (p. 1). "As the book came together, [Hull] says, several trends emerged. First, the committee set out to include music from a wide variety of sources across Canada -- both geographically and ethnically, Hull says. The songs they picked included some of what Hull refers to as 'paperless hymns' -- songs musicians can teach to a congregation without the need for members sitting in the pews to have a copy of the book themselves ... And, he says, they added an important new category of hymn -- lament -- which they wove into a section of hymns of praise". In a conversation about worship in the wake of tragedy, Hull said that the Rev. Paul Gibson "coined a phrase which struck Hull so much that he would eventually quote it in 'Sing a New Creation's' introduction: 'Lament is the shadow side of praise'. .... Hymns of lament make up a small part of 'Sing a New Creation', he adds, but if the committee had known about the coming grief and trauma of the pandemic before the contents were finalized in 2017, they might well have added more" (p. 6). The major challenge for the Rev. Eileen Scully, Director of Faith, Worship and Ministry, was finding a way to get the book printed since General Synod did not have the resources to do so as it had for 'Common Praise' in 1998. "'We needed a publisher who could assume the risks for us. We had no money to put up to pay for engraving -- that's very expensive', says Scully. In music publishing, engraving is the process of drawing notation" (p. 6). In the end she reached out to the Episcopal Church and their Church Publishing Inc. (CPI) who agreed to the publication. Scully said Church Publishing "thought Anglicans outside Canada would be excited for it, too. 'They saw it as a gift to the whole Anglican Communion'. As this article was being written, 'Sing a New Creation' had not been officially released, but Scully told the Journal she was surprised and impressed at the amount of interest -- not to mention pre-sales -- the book had garnered on CPI's online store" (p. 6).
- Subjects
- Sing a New Creation
- Hymnbooks - Anglican Church of Canada
- Hymnbooks - Anglican Church of Canada - Publication and distribution
- Hymns - Anglican Church of Canada
- Hull, Ken (Kenneth Ross), 1952-
- Scully, J. Eileen (Jennifer Eileen), 1964-
- Church Publishing Inc.