The Hymnal From Below: A Justice Reading of Glory to God
“There remains an experience of incomparable value. We have for once learned to see the great events of world history from below, from the perspective of the outcast, the suspects, the maltreated, the power-less, the oppressed, the reviled – in short, from the perspective of those who suffer.”
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Letters and Papers from Prison)
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) has just released a new hymnal: Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal, and people all over the country are beginning to pore through it with a mixture of excitement and anxiety. Will my favorite hymns still be included? What new hymns have they chosen? Will my worshiping community purchase the hymnal? Do hymnals even matter in this age of technology and screen projectors?
Here at Unbound, we think the new hymnal does matter because, as many of our contributors will argue, the words and music we sing regularly in worship deeply inform what we believe about God, humanity, and the world. Particularly, we’re interested in what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called the “view from below” – what this collection of hymns communicates about and to groups of people who have traditionally been marginalized by society.
We’ve asked our various authors to reflect on the question, “What does the new hymnal communicate about ________ justice?” (gender, racial, economic, etc.). During this Advent Season of hoping and waiting, we will journey alongside those who have long waited for justice – and those who are still waiting. Our contributors will reflect on how Glory to God does – and does not – announce to the “good tidings of great joy to all people” to those who hear it from the margins. Perhaps by listening to them, we will learn something about how we can use this new hymnal to enact justice through our songs until, in the words of the well-known carol, “the whole world sends back the song which now the angels sing.”
–Managing Editor Ginna Bairby
Week 1: HOPE for Gender Justice
In many faith communities, the first week of Advent is a time to cultivate hope — hope as we wait to celebrate the first coming of the Christ child at Christmas and hope and longing as we work and wait with anticipation for the coming of God’s Kingdom in all its fullness. Our authors this week will live into that hope as they reflect on Glory to God from the perspective of gender justice. What images does the hymnal use to describe God? To describe humanity? Whose experiences does the hymnal highlight? And what does all of this communicate to those who will sing these songs about what it means to be made in God’s image?
As an introduction, and for those who are still debating whether or not to buy the new hymnal, you may wish to start with Rev. Randy Bush’s thoughtful overview of the considerations he and his church have had. As the week goes on, we will hear from Miriam Foltz, James N. Hoke, and Rev. Stacey Midge as they lift up their own joys, concerns, and observations about gender justice in Glory to God.
Along with the invitation to write this article about gender justice in the new PC(USA) hymnal, Glory to God, I received a list of relevant hymns. My first reaction was, “Wow, that is a whole lot of hymns with the word ‘woman’ in the title.” It felt awkward, a bit
MoreHymns are a powerful form of discourse. Along with other acts of worship, it is through hymns that our theological beliefs begin to be shaped. Indeed, it may be that hymns—out of all the forms of discourse in a traditional worship service (e.g., sermon, scripture reading, prayers)—have the greatest influence
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MoreIt may sound like the start of a joke, but the question is a legitimate one: How many Presbyterians does it take to decide to buy a new church hymnal? In reality, it is a significant decision that will wind its way through countless committees, congregation members, and Sessions. It
MoreWeek 2: LOVE in the Context of Multiculturalism
The second candle in the Advent wreath is often called the candle of love — arguably the most generic and the most important of the Christian virtues. We know how the verses go: “Love your neighbor as yourself,” “Love is patient, Love is kind…” and after awhile, it starts to sound simple and benign. But what does it look like to love our neighbors as ourselves when our neighbors look, talk, and even worship differently than we do? How can we love a neighbor that we have never met and probably never will meet? This week, our authors explore what it looks like to love our neighbors of all different cultures – those in our midst and those around the globe – through the way we sing and worship. How does Glory to Godserve as a worship resource for an African American or a Latin@ American? Where does it fall short? What are what, European Americans to make of all this new world music – in so many different languages? What does Glory to God teach us about our global neighbors, and how does it connect us to them? And what does all this have to do with love?
Question: “Why should European-American Presbyterians in the United States include world music in our worship?” I love a good mashup; I suspect we all do. There is something powerful about the collision of two different songs, a mess of lyrics and melodies that seem to work together while simultaneously offering
More“Heaven is Singing for Joy / El Cielo Canta Alegria,” (#382) was written in 1958, but/and Glory to God is the first Presbyterian hymnal to include it. The notes below the hymn read as follows: “Written in 1958 for a picnic of theological students in Argentina, this piece represents the
MoreThe following is a sermon preached by Rev. Nathan Dell based on the text of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” by James Weldon Johnson, Hymn #339 in Glory to God. Two widely known prayers that are often set to music are the Lord’s Prayer and the Prayer of St. Francis
MoreGlory to God indeed! Alleluia! I add my voice to the chorus of my brothers and sisters throughout the country singing from our new hymnal. I celebrate this new powerful resource, a labor of love that took great time, energy, and perseverance from faithful people. This hymnal will help the
MoreWeek 3: JOY at Being Included
And now we come to the third week of Advent, or “the week of the pink candle,” as it is perhaps better known. In the midst of lighting darker purple candles as we walk through the Advent season of waiting and repentance, we light the one pink candle of joy to remind us that even as we walk in darkness and long for the coming of Immanuel, there is joy in our midst. And there are few things that bring joy like a sense of belonging, of being included and welcomed into fellowship with others. Yet even when we seek to embrace a spirit of welcome and inclusion, there is much we can do, say, even sing that communicates to one group of people or another that they are not really welcome at our table. Our authors this week take a look at the way the hymns in Glory to God do and don’t extend welcome to all people. What does this hymnal have to say to the LGBTQ community? How does it invite into worship people living with disabilities? Is there space in this hymnal’s understanding of God and of salvation history for all of creation, not just human beings? Are there times and places where inclusion can go too far? Our authors this week invite you to listen for the places where the joy of inclusion is breaking forth — and to join in the conversation and hallelujahs!
After the General Assembly 219th in 2010 lifted the ban on the ordination of gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals, the leadership at my past church thought it might be a good idea to host a couple of evening classes to inform individuals about the issues voted upon in Minneapolis. From
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MoreImages of nature and creation in hymnody are hardly new. The psalms, among the earliest songs of God’s people, are replete with images and celebrations of God’s good creation, and as ancient a text as Francis of Assissi’s “All Creatures of Our God and King” (#15) contains an exhilarating richness
More“What does the new hymnal communicate about justice and inclusion for people with disabilities?” There is really no answer to the question of what a volume of 853 hymns will communicate to someone in the pew about justice and inclusion for persons living with a disability. What is communicated will
MoreWeek 4: PEACE On Earth, Goodwill to All
Finally we come to the Fourth Sunday of Advent, when, with just days until Christmas, we light the candle of peace. Peace is one of our most beloved and oft-repeated themes during this Christmas season. We can hardly open a card or sing a Christmas carol without hearing the angels’ praise of Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth, goodwill to all. We listen to Handel’s Messiah and hear that “his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace“; we pray that Emmanuel will come and “bid envy, strife, and discord cease; fill the whole world with heaven’s peace.” The angels sing, “Peace on earth and mercy mild; God and sinners reconciled;” and we look forward to the time, “when peace shall over all the earth its ancient splendors fling.” And by candlelight on Christmas Eve, we lift our prayers that the Christ-child and we ourselves may “sleep in heavenly peace.” And yet, what does peace really look like in our world governed by military might? How do we follow the Prince of Peace in a world that knows violence far too well — both the actual violence of war and the structural violence of injustice? Is peace simply the absence of conflict, or is it, as Dr. Martin Luther King so famously said, the presence of justice? And what does it mean/look like for this peace to be for the whole earth, for goodwill to extend to ALL? Our authors in this final week of this series will spend some time contemplating justice and peace and how we — when we sing the hymns of Glory to God — can join the angels in proclaiming peace on earth and goodwill to all people!
This Christmas season, we have touched on a wide variety of topics as we have investigated what the hymns in Glory to God say about justice for the church and for individuals. Some of what our authors have shared has been received almost universally with great rejoicing, and some has
MoreSalvation History in the Presbyterian Hymnal Letter by Nahida H. Gordon, Introduction by Rev. Chris Iosso Mary is warned by Simeon in the Christmas story that “a sword will pierce her heart” (Luke 2:35). Frankly, this letter from Professor Nahida Gordon, a Palestinian American Presbyterian, makes me uncomfortable because it challenges
More[ezcol_2third][/ezcol_2third] [ezcol_1third_end]Author David Lamotte sings “This Is My Song” (#340)[/ezcol_1third_end] “The prophet does not ask if the vision can be implemented, for questions of implementation are of no consequence until the vision can be imagined.” — Walter Brueggemann In the field of music therapy, stories are often told of
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