HymnPosium Update

This week we conducted our seventh of eleven HymnPosiums and they have all been the same and all different.  The Birmingham folks talked a good bit about the title of the hymnal and batted around the importance of “Baptist” appearing on the cover.  The crowd included several church music students from nearby Samford University who gave us their perspective on several subject. 

In Richmond, participants wrestled with us regarding inclusive language and we all realize that both ends of that spectrum feel strongly about their positions. The Text and Tune Committee as well as the editors are evaluating each hymn line by line and trying to move a theology of inclusiveness forward without being offensive to another position.  This will be much easier and more obvious in new material that appears in the hymnal because most of it will not be in people’s memory banks.  The editors believe that God’s salvation, God’s call and claim on people’s lives is without gender, and that God gifts women and men to minister in the world.  

There was also a pretty strong sentiment that the Richmond folks are looking to our project to provide hymnody of substance; if they need or want “lighter fare,” they look for it on many online sources.  By the time Celebrating Grace Hymnal is released (Spring, 2010) many of the contemporary songs that may have been included would have already become passé. The editors are carefully evaluating contemporary material and trying to determine that which seems to have appropriate shelf life.