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| I love our church's new hymnal, and it's increased use of hymns with we, us, and our language for corporate worship; |
Here's a proposal for a novel kind of hymn sing I'd love to be an experimental part of, as follows:
First, participants would be seated in the round. hopefully in a place with great acoustics, enabling them to be singing to and with each other, and using all plural rather than singular pronouns in the hymns selected.
In going through our church's newest hymnal as a part of my morning meditation time, I have been trying out some pronoun substitutions. Many of the hymns, especially those coming from a pietistic tradition, are primarily personal testimony songs, which isn't a bad thing, but it seems reasonable to me that most of what we sing when we are together should use the pronouns we, us and our in the lyrics. This is already true of the first 41 gathering hymns in Voices Together, and in many of the familiar texts in all of our hymnals.
There is precedent for making certain changes in our hymns, as in avoiding or reducing the use of masculine pronouns, as in the exclusive use of he, his him, man, mankind, etc. So changing some wording in our hymns isn't unheard of.
I'm not saying that beloved songs like Blessed Assurance, When Peace Like a River, and others shouldn't be retained as they are, but many hymns could be modified to help us think more in terms of an Anabaptist concept of "corporate discipleship" by the use of plural pronouns.
And for future hymnals, fewer thees, thous and thines might not hurt either, though I can also appreciate some such reminders of our ancient heritage.
But how would these texts feel when sung together?
VT 605 My Life Flows On (Our Lives Flow On)
1 Our lives flow on in endless song,
above earth’s lamentation.
We catch the sweet, though far-off hymn
that hails a new creation.
Refrain:
No storm can shake our inmost calm
while to that Rock we're clinging.
Since Love is lord of heav’n and earth,
how can we keep from singing?
2 Through all the tumult and the strife,
We hear that music ringing.
It finds an echo in our souls.
How can we keep from singing? [Refrain]
3 What though our joys and comforts die,
We find new joy in living.
What though the darkness gather round?
We waken to thanksgiving. [Refrain]
4 The peace of Christ makes fresh our hearts,
a fountain ever springing!
All things are ours since we are his!
How can we keep from singing? [Refrain]
VT 557 Spirit of God! Descend:
1 Spirit of God, descend upon our hearts,
wean them from sin, through all their pulses move.
Stoop to our weakness, mighty as you are,
and make us love you as we ought to love.
2 We ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies,
no sudden rending of the veil of clay,
no angel visitant, no opening skies;
but take the dimness of our souls away.
3 Did you not bid us love you, God and King,
love you with all our heart and strength and mind?
We see the cross— there teach our hearts to cling.
O let us seek you and O let us find!
4 Teach us to feel that you are always near;
teach us the struggles of the soul to bear,
to check the rising doubt, the troubling fear;
teach us the patience of unceasing prayer.
5 Teach us to love you as your angels love,
one holy passion filling all my frame:
the baptism of the heaven-descended Dove;
our hearts an altar, and your love the flame.
I think in most cases this would not require reprinting all the texts for use in a hymn sing, but before each verse the modified text could be read with the changes of pronouns.
Here's a link to a post on a related theme https://harvyoder.blogspot.com/2015/01/my-father-who-art-in-heaven-paying.html
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