''The United Methodist Hymnal'' is the
hymnal used by
The United Methodist Church
The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelica ...
. It was first published in 1989 as the first hymnal for The United Methodist Church after the 1968 merger of
The Methodist Church with The
Evangelical United Brethren Church. The 960-page hymnal is noted for many changes that were made in the lyrics of certain hymns, so as to modernize the hymnal.
History
Prior to the release of ''The United Methodist Hymnal'', The United Methodist Church used the hymnals that were in use by The Methodist Church and The Evangelical United Brethren Church at the time of the merger. The Methodist Church generally used
''The Methodist Hymnal'', also known as ''The Book of Hymns'', or a 1982 supplement, while The Evangelical United Brethren Church had its own hymnal, ''The Hymnal'', which was first published in 1957, and other congregations sometimes used special hymnals oriented to different nationalities.
The release of ''United Methodist Hymnal'' in 1989 followed the updates of several other denominational hymnals in the previous decade, such as ''
Lutheran Book of Worship
The ''Lutheran Book of Worship'' (''LBW'') is a worship book and hymnal used by several Lutheran denominations in North America. Additional hymns and service music are contained in the companions, ''Hymnal Supplement 1991'' and ''With One Vo ...
'' in 1978 and the Episcopalian ''
The Hymnal 1982
''The Hymnal 1982'' is the primary hymnal of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. It is one in a series of seven official hymnals of the Episcopal Church, including ''The Hymnal 1940''. Unlike many Anglican churches (including the ...
''.
''The United Methodist Hymnal'' was developed by a revision committee composed of twenty-five members led by editor Carlton R. Young (who also edited ''The Methodist Hymnal''), and chaired by
Bishop Rueben P. Job. It was the first hymnal following The Methodist Church's merger with The Evangelical United Brethren Church.
In selecting and arranging hymns, many that contained masculine pronouns were altered so as to include
gender-neutral pronouns
A third-person pronoun is a pronoun that refers to an entity other than the speaker or listener. Some languages with gender-specific pronouns have them as part of a grammatical gender system, a system of agreement where most or all nouns have a va ...
instead.
Male references to
God, such as "Master", "Father" and "King", were retained, and a hymn entitled "Strong Mother God" was rejected.
The editors had also considered eliminating militaristic references, and in 1986 the hymnal revision was the subject of controversy as the editors had considered eliminating "
Onward Christian Soldiers
"Onward, Christian Soldiers" is a 19th-century English hymn. The words were written by Sabine Baring-Gould in 1865, and the music was composed by Arthur Sullivan in 1871. Sullivan named the tune "St Gertrude," after the wife of his friend Erne ...
" and some verses of "
The Battle Hymn of the Republic," but retained both hymns after receiving more than 11,000 protest letters.
The line "white as snow" was changed to "bright as snow" in "Nothing but the Blood of Jesus", so as to eliminate the imagery of black and white respectively being images of sin and redemption. A line in "
O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing
"O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing" is a Christian hymn written by Charles Wesley.According to the use of the Episcopal Church. ''The Hymnal 1982''. The Church Hymnal Corporation, 1982, hymn number 493 The hymn was placed first in John Wesley's ...
" containing references to blindness, deafness and muteness was marked with an asterisk to indicate that it may be omitted.
Several international hymns were also selected, including Spanish, Asian and American Indian hymns, as well as Black
spirituals.
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based ...
's "
Come Sunday
"Come Sunday" is a piece by Duke Ellington, which became a jazz standard. It was written in 1942 as a part of the first movement of a suite entitled ''Black, Brown and Beige''. Ellington was engaged for a performance at Carnegie Hall on Januar ...
" was also included.
In compositions by
John Wesley
John Wesley (; 2 March 1791) was an English people, English cleric, Christian theology, theologian, and Evangelism, evangelist who was a leader of a Christian revival, revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The soci ...
, many of the lyrical changes made by his brother
Charles
Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*k ...
were reverted, and most uses of "thee" were replaced with "you".
The hymnal also contains four forms of the
Holy Communion
The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instituted ...
ritual, known as the Service of Word and Table, and also of the Baptismal Covenant, along with several musical settings for both of those services. It also contains the
marriage
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...
and
funeral
A funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant observances. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember and respect th ...
rites, forms for morning and evening Praise and Prayer, and a
Psalter
A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the emergence of the book of hours in the Late Middle Ages, psalters we ...
based on the
New Revised Standard Version
The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) is an English translation of the Bible published in 1989 by the National Council of Churches.[United Methodist Publishing House
Abingdon Press is the book publishing arm of the United Methodist Publishing House which publishes sheet music, Minister (Christianity), ministerial resources, Bible-study aids, and other items, often with a focus on Methodism and Methodists.
H ...](_blank)
sent a 73-page sampler to several churches.
More than three million copies were sold by July 31, 1989,
and the total was over four-and-a-half million ten years later.
Two supplemental hymnals have been issued, ''The Faith We Sing'' in 2000, and ''Worship & Song'' in 2011.
There are two other equally official hymnals of The United Methodist Church: ''Mil Voces Para Celebrar: Himnario Metodista'' (published in 1996) and ''Come, Let Us Worship: The Korean-English United Methodist Hymnal'' (published in 2000).
[ ''The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church 2008'', ¶1114.3]
See also
*
List of English-language hymnals by denomination
Hymnal
A hymnal or hymnary is a collection of hymns, usually in the form of a book, called a hymnbook (or hymn book). Hymnals are used in congregational singing. A hymnal may contain only hymn texts (normal for most hymnals for most centuries ...
External links
HymnSite.com - United Methodist Hymn Resources (Unofficial Resource)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:United Methodist Hymnal
Protestant hymnals
United Methodist Church
1989 books
1989 in Christianity
1989 in music