Did happy-clappy hymns ruin Britain?

Sig, I just realized I forgot to answer your question about the "Yahweh" songs.

Actually, Rome has announced that the word "Yahweh" is going to be removed from songs and from the lectionary at Mass. The reason is simple: the age old Hebrew tradition of not pronouncing the tetragrammaton, or the four letters which stood for God's name, was kept by the early Christians and in fact continued to be the practice of Christians until rather recently.

Thus, the Holy Father has said that out of respect for our Jewish brothers and sisters and their age-old custom of considering God's name too holy to be pronounced, we will return to that former and longstanding custom. All Catholic parishes will eventually implement this change.

For a choir member like myself, this means that "Yahweh, I know you are near" is one of the songs that isn't going to be sung anymore; and while it's far from being the worst of the worst of the modern hymns, it is one of those that I sang roughly eight million times in grade school, so I'm not really going to miss it. Now if they'd just get rid of "Though the Mountains May Fall," which is the *other* song we seemed to sing just about weekly through my formative years...

Seriously, though, from what I understand the publishers of Catholic hymn books are working to alter lyrics or remove songs which use the various forms of the tetragrammaton, which also includes Jehovah and a few others. This really is one of those areas where the modernizers failed to realize the impact of their desire to change things; while it's true that our Jewish brothers and sisters may find other things about our faith to be somewhat offensive on occasion, there is absolutely no reason to cause them pain by a seemingly flippant or disrespectful use of the holy Name of God, so I'm very encouraged by the positive response I've seen from my fellow Catholics about this change (or really, reversion to an older practice).

Kudos to you, Erin, for being part of the choir. People don't realize how much work goes into that! Mr. Sig and I always took pains to thank the choir even if the hymns had not been our choice.

I can't sing "Yahweh, I Know You Are Near," but not because I dislike it. Many years ago. close friends lost their youngest child to a completely unexpected, devastating illness. "Yahweh, I Know You Are Near" was sung at her funeral. To this day, when I hear it, I see that tiny white coffin and I go all to pieces. Just an example, I guess, of how songs mean different things to different people.

Thanks for the explanation about the use of "Yahweh." That actually makes sense. In fact, I knew about the Tetragrammaton way back when they first started using it, and wondered how they were getting away with that!

For more carol ideas, you might try googling "lessons and carols." The Oxford Book of Carols is great, as Richard says, and the Christmas Revels Songbook, compiled by Nancy and John Langstaff, and the Trapp Family Book of Christmas Songs, edited by Franz Wasner, also have some traditional but seldom-heard songs.