During the 2024-2025 season, The Hymn Society is sponsoring a series of webinars on a variety of topics related to congregational song. All the presentations will be broadcast live, mostly on Tuesdays at 1:00 p.m. ET. They will also be available as recordings for registrants to view for an extended period.
Registration for a single webinar is $20 for members, $25 for non-members, $10 for students. Registration for the full series of six webinars is $95 for members, $125 for non-members, and $45 for students. Additional information and online registration is available at www.thehymnsociety.org.
Register NowHow are the seasons of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany both distinctive and also in conversation? In this webinar, we look at a range of songs for the seasons: where they might appear and how, in our singing of them, they might come to life.
Eric Wall serves as the Gene Alice Sherman Associate Professor of Sacred Music and Dean of the Chapel at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. He is also the staff musician at Montreat Conference Center, a national conference center of the PC(USA) in Montreat, NC. He is a past president of the Presbyterian Association of Musicians (PAM) and a contributor to the PC(USA)’s Call to Worship journal. A volume of his hymn introductions and accompaniments for organ, Awake and Sing, was published in June 2022 by Augsburg Fortress.
Register NowErik Routley’s wisdom, wit, and provocative ideas on the relationship between theology and music, and clergy and musicians being collaborative artists in service to the Gospel still spark discussion and direction in the 21st century.
Nancy L. Graham is a church musician, lecturer, and author. She holds both a Doctor of Sacred Music and Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Foundation House in Oxford, as well as a MM from Westminster Choir College. Her recently published, The Unfractured Faith of Erik Routley: From Brighton to Princeton (Rowman and Littlefield), is the biography of the noted theologian and hymnologist. Prior publications explore the origins and reception history of African American spirituals, camp meeting songs, and other religious folk music.
Register NowThis webinar introduces five Cebuano congregational responses from the Philippines, including a confession response, a prayer response, a scripture reading response, an offertory response, and a benediction response. All responses come from Hinalad, a collection of Cebuano choral anthems and liturgical responses that the presenter co-edited. The presenter will begin with a brief story on the genesis and current status of the collection including salient features of the collection, followed by a short introduction to the Cebuano language, and end with the singing of the five congregational responses. All songs will be provided with English prose translations.
Jean Nalam is a song/hymnwriter, composer, arranger, choir conductor, singer, and guitarist. She is an Assistant Professor of Church Music at the Divinity School, Silliman University, Philippines. She earned her Doctor of Philosophy in Church Music and Worship degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Texas.
Register NowIf we are to arrive at true resurrection hope of Easter, we must be willing to face the shadows of Lent. This webinar will explore how we might face these shadows by sing our personal and corporate laments during Lent and Holy Week and provide musical resources that can accompany us on the journey to the cross and tomb.
David Bjorlin is the Assistant Professor of Worship at North Park Theological Seminary and a hymnwriter. His newest collection, Hope Will Not Fail, will be published by GIA Publications in the fall of 2024.
Register NowThis webinar will examine Black British Gospel Music (BBGM) in its historical and contemporary perspectives, bringing this neglected area of study to the attention of the scholarly community, demonstrating its importance within global conversations about congregational singing. The presentation will chart the trajectory of BBGM from its post-war foundations to contemporary challenges and structural arrangements. The first part discusses the Caribbean roots and transnational routes of BBGM and grounds the music’s foundation and nurturance within Black majority congregations in Britain. The second part presents data exploring the current position of BBGM in churches within the UK context.
Dulcie Dixon McKenzie is the Director of the Centre for Black Theology at the Queen’s Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education, Birmingham, UK. She achieved her PhD at the University of Birmingham and has published in the area of Black British gospel music and church history. She is a multiple award-winning pioneer of Black British gospel music Radio, including a lifetime achievement award.
Pauline Muir is a lecturer in Arts Management at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Awarded a PhD from Birkbeck College, University of London interrogating congregation music within UK Black majority Churches, her research interests are in the intricate interplay between ‘race’, identity, congregational music and the Black British Gospel industry. She has publications in this field.
Register NowThis webinar will survey the history of copyright in the United States as it concerns congregational song. We will then go over the current law and some specific examples of what is and what isn’t legal. Finally, we’ll have a conversation about the difference between what is legal and what is ethical. A Q&A will conclude the session where all your wildest congregational song copyright questions will be answered….maybe.
Brian Hehn is Director of The Center for Congregational Song for The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada while also serving as Director of Liturgical Worship at St. John’s Lutheran Church Sweet Air in Phoenix, Maryland. He is a graduate of Wingate University and Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University. He is a published author and composer in the field of church music.
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