The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada has released its long-awaited collection of hymns and songs in celebration of its centennial in 2022. In his introduction to the collection, editorial committee member Andrew Donaldson, FHS, describes the guiding vision for this Storehouse of Song: “The Centennial Committee charged the editorial team to use the themes of community, solidarity and mutuality as a starting point. It asked us to be prospective, focusing on recent work which speaks to the contemporary North American church, but also offers ‘the promise of speaking beyond North America in the coming 10-15 years.’”
The three themes are rich, with many linking strands.
The sheer joy of gathering in community is expressed by “Comment ne pas te louer?/ How Can We Not Praise Your Name?” by Therése Nomo’s “Allons Chanter à Sion,” (Cameroon) and by Geonyong Lee’s psalm setting “Ohoradia/어허라디야 (Korea).
Community expressed as a circle of expanding welcome in the Gordon Light/Mark Miller, FHS, song “Draw the Circle Wide” and in David Bjorlin’s “Build a Longer Table” (NOËL NOUVELET). Simei Monteiro, FHS pictures community as a journey, a pilgrimage in “Cançao da caminhada/Song of the Way.”
The qualities and choices that foster right relations in community are portrayed in Timothy Dudley-Smith, FHS’s ‘Not for Tongues of Heaven’s Angels (music by Michael Joncas, FHS), and Pat Mayberry’s “Caring Community”.
The many tasks of collaborating with God in establishing justice are explored in “God has Work for Us To Do” (Carl P. Daw, Jr., FHS and Mark Miller, FHS) and Shirley Erena Murray, FHS’s texts “God Weeps,” and “God of mercy, God of Justice” and the role of mercy and forgiveness in rebuilding shattered community in “We Look Upon our Enemies,” by Jacque Browning Jones, FHS (JESOUS AHATONHIA).
We are offered two contrasting and powerful images of the Holy Trinity as the foundations of Christian community in Richard Leach’s “Come, Join the Dance of Trinity” (KINGSFOLD) and “Awit sa Dapit Hapon/Evening Song” (Moises Andrade and Francisco F. Feliciano).
Biblical narrative showing radical transformation of received attitudes, previously affirmed as eternal truths, are explored in “Quirky, Queer and Wonderful” (Adam M. L. Tice, FHS and Sally Ann Morris, FHS). The lived experience of being queer is expressed not as a community seen as “other,” from the outside, but rather as a self-portrayal in “We Are the Hidden” (Slats Toole and Megan Coiley), and “God Calls you Good” (Paul Vasile), among others.
Some of the biblical commands regarding the stranger form the background of “When Jesus was a Refugee,” by Dan C. Damon, FHS (ST. JAMES INFIRMARY) and “Can God be Seen in Other Ways” by John Thornburg, FHS and Jane Marshall (ENGLISH).
As it celebrates 100 years of song, The Hymn Society offers this collection both as a gift to the singing church and as a witness to the ways in which we are called to sing the world God imagines.