Home Christian News Marking Its Centennial, Hymn Society Continues Push for More Diverse Music

Marking Its Centennial, Hymn Society Continues Push for More Diverse Music

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Hymn Society members attend the Opening Hymn Festival of their annual conference on Sunday, July 17, 2022, in Washington, D.C. Photo courtesy of The Hymn Society/Glen Richardson

(RNS) — Rahel Daulay, a Methodist who had traveled from Indonesia, was explaining the proper way to dance while singing a hymn she had brought from Southeast Asia — bending knees slightly “to humble yourself” and turning toward one’s neighbors, palms together at the chest. Then turn forward, lift up the arms and hold the hands upward.

For the 300-some members of the Hymn Society in the U.S. and Canada, who hadn’t met in person for three years, it was a liberation.

“Let us come and worship our creator,” they sang Tuesday (July 19), the second day of their annual conference, as they swayed and danced at Catholic University’s Edward J. Pryzbyla University Center. The organization comprises representatives from more than 50 denominations who speak as many as six languages. Some had traveled as many as 8,000 miles to attend.

Since COVID-19 hit, many of the academics and music practitioners in attendance have not been able to sing out even in their home churches, as congregational singing has been stifled in many houses of worship for fear of spreading the virus.

Though masking was enforced, the pandemic had lifted just enough this year for organizers to go ahead with the 2022 in-person meeting, celebrating the society’s 100th year of existence.

“For the past three years, it’s been so nice to see all of your faces on screen and be together in that way, but there is nothing like seeing your faces out here and being together to sing,” said Executive Director J. Michael McMahon in greeting on Monday.

Centennial Celebration Hymn Festival. Photo courtesy of The Hymn Society/Glen Richardson

Attendees stand during a performance at the Centennial Celebration Hymn Festival. Photo courtesy of The Hymn Society/Glen Richardson

With the theme “Sing the World God Imagines,” the gathering demonstrated the powerful influence hymns have, not only on faith communities but also on politics and society at large across the globe, as lecture sessions addressed topics such as the ongoing effects of colonialism on the texts and tunes they choose to sing.

Consciousness of hymns’ power has driven a growing diversity in the Christian hymnody, and members and guests meeting this week insisted that the trend continue into the coming century.

“I have had the pleasure of watching this community grow to embrace and to celebrate the way the gospel can be preached and sung and prayed in many tongues and rhythms, calling forth an array of gifts much like the first-century church,” said conference preacher Cynthia A. Wilson, a United Methodist and leader of a new Black church music institute at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary.

“But as we move into this century, friends, I promise we will not get through it without the boldness of protest, the power of prayer and the potency of God’s song.”

Monday’s opening worship service featured Wilson’s sermon and songs like “Let it Rise,” “God Is Here” and “Order my Steps.” For much of the rest of the meeting, participants, including several dozen online, took turns leading and learning unfamiliar songs from many lands as well as familiar hymns with new beats and new words.

On Wednesday, Mikako Ehara, head of church music for the Japan Baptist Convention, taught “God’s World,” the song featuring a Japanese folk melody based on a nursery rhyme she compared to “The 12 Days of Christmas” — “where a line is added with each new verse” about creation as told in the Book of Genesis.