For well over a decade, I have been connecting with colleagues, meeting new friends, and, of course, singing at Annual Conference events. There’s nothing like the singing at an Annual Conference of The Hymn Society.

The Hymn Society is an exciting place where I can meet numerous prominent hymn writers and liturgical scholars in person whose names are familiar to me from hymnals and academic readings!

I’m a proud member of The Hymn Society. For the past almost 30 years, this membership has been extremely meaningful to me because it connects me to other leaders, creators, practitioners, and scholars who inspire me as we learn together. We’re a community of people who just love the church’s song.

My membership is important to me because of how practitioners, theologians, musicians, pastors, and the lovers of congregational song in general get a chance to meet one another and learn from one another. I’ve always believed that the song of the church is one of the most ecumenical and authentic ways people get to feel unified.

I am a life member of The Hymn Society because I have found that singing together builds relationships, creates human wholeness, and fosters spiritual unity more than spoken words alone. Singing together is a defiant act and bold witness in support of wholeness in the face of divisiveness, empathy in the face of exclusion, beauty in the face of degradation, and love in the face of hate.

My membership is important to me because it connects me with others who understand that we sing what we believe, and it’s enriched my ministry and scholarship with resources and relationships that I couldn’t find anywhere else.

I love the truly collaborative spirit manifested between members and the way in which they honor and mutually support one another. I love how The Hymn Society never loses sight of music’s central role in giving a living and vibrant voice to faith communities. And I love that The Hymn Society is ecumenical and interfaith, always seeking to broaden the musical, theological, and cultural diversity of its members and their music-making.