Did happy-clappy hymns ruin Britain?

Yes! At my mother's Lutheran church, they have one "contemporary worship" service with the kind of contemporary Christian music that drives me up the wall. Not all traditional hymns are good, but I'll take "A Mighty Fortress is our God" or "Oh God Our Help in Ages Past" over some of these "clappy happy" moronic hymns any day of the week.

Sometimes, I cry when I sing good hymns, but I want to whine out loud when I have to endure the tedium of singing "contemporary Christian" music. Arrrrrrgh!

Y'know ... maybe you need to take issue with the writer of the Psalm upon which "On Eagle's Wings" is based.

What I don't understand is how people who complain about sneering from the Media Elites(tm) turn around and sneer on the topic of liturgical music. Bunch of Traditionalist Orthodox Elites(tm) if you ask me ....

And I suppose I'm a joyless little liberal who had a twinge there, TMF, about your cavalier little joke about waterboarding. I suppose if everyone understood that waterboarding was torture, it would be funny, in the way the outrageous is always funny, but when it seems like there is a sizable percentage of people who think waterboarding is jes peachy, I can't find the irony funny.

(FWIW, I don't find abortion jokes very funny either.)

Love the quote from Quentin Letts, "Happy-cr*ppy hymns are a pestilence." I couldn't have said it better myself!

My church has gone all "happy clappy," and I need "good" worship music, and contemplative, quiet reflection. When I'm at a "happy clappy" service, I actually feel worse afterward; I come away from those services with a "mad at the world" attitude, which is unusual for me. Even political wrangling doesn't upset me as much as "Shine, Jesus, Shine." So, for the sake of my sanity, I had to stop going to that church and start shopping for a new one.

Thanks for posting this article--I'll send it to our former choir director, who lost her job when the happy clappy crowd came to our church, and got a new job right away at a church looking for "real" music.

Whilst I dislike happy-clappy worship, I think this is a bit harsh. If I recall correctly, Kendrick never even intended the song to be used in a worship setting - he wrote it as a pop song, not a hymn.

Everybody has their own opinion on liturgical music. It is inevitable that someone's pet peeves will be aggravated. That is why the Mass is best without any music at all.

My (former) minister's excuse for encouraging this "happy clappy" stuff--including applause during worship service to "praise God"--is that people clap for football teams, so why should you be shy about clapping for God?

Well, in my opinion, treating God like a football star is disrespectful. But that's just me, and that's why there are so many different denominations of Christianity. Not everybody has to worship the same way. It's fine if other people want to clap, stomp, and sing "Shine, Jesus, Shine"--just as long as they don't do it around me!

I wonder how the ancient Israelites felt when they when their music went all happy clappy under David - what with him dancing ecstatically half naked in the streets and all. Did they yearn for a good old fashioned dirge or military style march when their leader started up with his wacky whirling dervish thing?

Really, it's a shame that music is such a point of contention for people. The truth of the matter is that whether our tastes run old school, ancient school or modern, we're all probably suffering from a lack of education and exposure about the variety of music Christianity has inspired. It really seems that exposure, especially at a young age is what it's all about more than anything. If you grew up with one type of music and were inspired to a sense of connection with God through it, and that's the only music you were exposed to on a consistent basis and therefor the only music you were ever inspired by, you will go into adulthood unable to be touched by other types of Christian music.

And the simple fact of the matter is that there are people who have been inspired by Shine Jesus Shine. I hate Rich Mullin's "Awesome God" and "Lord, I lift your name on high" (complete with cheesy hand movements), but I have seen people moved to tears in worship with these songs. I may not get it, but I'm not the only, or even the most important person in the room. Heck, I myself loved On Eagles Wings when I was a kid. So, it seems to me that a bit more Christian charity is in order here. And a lot more eclecticism in our churches would undoubtably be a good thing. Although they can keep the organ music - even having been exposed to it as a child and it still makes me want to hurl myself off a cliff. But then again, perhaps it is not for nothing that we are given the spiritual gift of forbearance :)

Interesting question. I am no fan of "happy-clappy hymns" at my current stage in life; I'm feeling quite serious lately. As a teen, though, singing "Shine Jesus Shine" with my youth group was a distinct high point. I think songs like that have their place; religion (and Britain) surely has room for more than one mood, for the contemplative and the playful. I'm forced to conclude that it's not the songs' existence that makes them ruinous; it's how some parishes use them.

I just the read the post by Dan B referencing "Onward Christian Soldiers". We once attended a church which was a bit more eclectic in their music selection, and I have to admit that this was EXACTLY the sort of song which would have my husband and I moaning quietly and laughing to ourselves in our seats. Talk about cheesy and over bearing (from our POV)! However, one day they sang "Eternal Father, Save the Strong" (which is the song the upper class people were singing during their service in the movie Titanic - also known as the Navy Hymn). My hubby and I found this highly amusing (and the lyrics ridiculously cheesy). After service I mentioned something to one of the older couples about the song having been used in the movie Titanic. They replied by telling me how special the song was to them because the husband had been in the Navy for many years including through Korea and Vietnam and the song had often been a prayer and a comfort during some worrisome times. They really appreciated that the song was used. After that, if a song didn't appeal to me, I tried to make a point of offering up a prayer for whomever in the pews might be being ministered to through the song. The point isn't that I am moved, but that God is at work and is honored - which He is, whether we're the one being moved or are moved to pray for another. The next church we went to was a integrated church with lots of clapping and even some dancing in the aisles - ala the ancient Isrealites :) - and I used to think that even my old Catholic mom whose favorite song is Prayer of St. Francis couldn't help but be moved by the Holy Spirit in those worship services - of course, I'm probably wrong and she wouldn't enjoy it any more than I would "Onward Christian Soldiers" - which is to say, not at all. Which is probably a shame for both of us. It's a good thing it's not all about us, huh?

Rod, you asked whether insipid hymns enervate the church and in turn the national character. Some random thoughts:

(1) Consider a certain Republican VP candidate, who attends churches that rely on "Contemporary Christian Music," "praise choruses," etc. Query: does this type of worship music encourage the type of incurious approach to life of which she has been accused?

(2) Consider that the lyrics of many of the "happy clappy" church songs (I can't bring myself to call them "hymns") often come close to romantic love ballads. Unless you knew they were being directed at Jesus, you'd swear they were the swoonings of a teeny-bopper girl about the boy next door. That creeps me out.

(3) The old gospel hymns didn't hesitate to honestly address issues of death, grief, loss, hardship, disappointment, etc. Think of "Will The Circle Be Unbroken?" By contrast, the "happy clappy" songs skirt such topics because they are "downers" and instead focus almost exclusively on "positive" themes (praise, victory, majesty, sitting on the floor and holding hands, etc.). All in the name of being "seeker sensitive" and making the pew potatoes comfortable.

(4) Its not just Catholics and Orthodox who are appalled by the trend toward "happy clappy" worship music. I'm an evangelical Presby who left his church when the new pastors put a video screen in the front of sanctuary, replaced the organ with a "worship band" and dumbed down the sermons. In my experience, when the "happy clappy" songs come in, out go the creeds, the deep sermons, the challenging Bible classes and the Christian intellectual life in general.

(5) If I ever hear that godawful chorus "Majesty" again, I swear I will go postal....

I suggest only that liturgical music has historically been treated with the reverence due a form of iconography. This is not to say that popular/folk material hasn't been used, but in general it's been used in a transformative manner, rather than being capitulated to.

The impasse is that we're so far now from that being the norm, and so accustomed to everything being a question of taste, that one can't argue that it isn't a question of taste without being told that that very position is itself a matter of taste.

So...

Richard

Most of the hymns mainliners and evangelicals consider traditional were the happy-clappies of their day. The 19th century was the absolute heyday of sentimental religion, no contest. If you weren't weeping, you weren't trying. "Nearer My God to Thee" was a byword in ~1900 literature for maudlin crap.

What difference does it make if the music stinks?

Do we offer the best of what we have to God or don't we? Your very question already sets up the scenario that we might as well not bother offering to God anything that isn't awful, which is exactly the opposite (I think) of what your sentiment intends. And if the music is so awful that it keeps people from being able to worship, or drives away other parties (serving as an anti-evangelical tool, perhaps), well, that makes a difference too.

You're exactly right, however, that it's about God, not about us, which is why somebody's personal taste is irrelevant. Personal taste has made music one of the liturgical crafts that seems to demand nowadays that the practitioner not know what they are doing.

Richard

Richard B, actually the sort of "Iconographic" music you speak of didn't come into existence until the middle ages. From what we can tell, early church music was based off of Greek, Syrian and Hebrew musical styles. (Can you believe Christianity survived for centuries on end without the benefit of organs or Gregorian chants? The heathens! No wonder the dark ages came upon them!) The most common form was a call and answer form of singing. Heck, if we wanted to do it right, we'd all use the hymns of the Syrian orthodox church which claims to be able to trace music back to the 1st century. Many sources claim that there were no instruments used in the early church, which if we didn't allow for changing tastes and standards would have made Bach's masses heretical. I'm sorry, but this is a silly, snobby conversation. I think MarcM has it about right:

"Perhaps that is what is wrong with today's church. We worry too much about externalities (music, politics, other peoples attitudes) and too little about our own heart."

"We must beware of the naive idea that our music can 'please' God as it would please a cultivated human hearer. That is like thinking under the old Law, that He really needed the blood of bulls and goats. To which an answer came, 'Mine are the cattle upon a thousand hills', and 'if I am hungry, I will not tell thee.'

If God wanted music, He would not tell us. For all our offerings, whether of music or martyrdom, are like the intrinsically worthless presents of a child, which a father values indeed, but values only for the intention."

-CS Lewis

I would say in the Catholic circles I run in as an Organist & Choirmaster, there is definitely a trend away from "happy clappy" music, i.e., "folk music". This does not mean that it is a complete reversal back to Sacred polyphony and Gregorian chant. Rather, you are likely to encounter in certain parishes High Anglican Music - Catholic style. Lots of sturdy strophic hymns accompanied on an organ with a smattering of Latin and Plainsong thrown in for good measure. Its getting better... slowly.

A lot, in the Catholic Church, has to do with the musical training and/or talents of the person selecting the hymns combined with the musical training and/or talents of the parish pastor; one thing I've learned from the last couple of years of being involved in a parish choir is that there's a lot of confusion as to what is preferable at Mass. Sometimes an orthodox-leaning music director gets told to play some of Father's favorites--and Father was probably in the seminary during the Felt Banner Folk Song years, and loves a rousing chorus of "Here I Am, Lord." Charity does go a long way, as does good humor; our dear choir director who died all too suddenly and all too young just about this time last year used to have a running joke with our pastor; director would schedule "How Great Thou Art" on his "menu" of upcoming music, and solemnly present it to Father; Father would carefully cross it out, and write in "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" instead, as Father *hated* "How Great Thou Art;" Father would then with equal solemnity present the "revision" to Pat.

I learned a lot from Pat, who for all his tolerance of some of the songs I (objectively speaking) think should be banished to Gitmo, with or without their authors, was still very deeply reverent and holy in his approach to the Mass; the music, whatever it was, was to be prayer first and foremost. I have since then encountered people with impeccable musical taste (from an orthodoxy standpoint) who haven't a drop of the milk of human kindness in them, and for whom the music at Mass is to be a performance--cold, as flawless as possible, and very discouraging to the congregation who can't figure out the tempo even if they wanted to.

Now, I'm all in favor of liturgical music guidelines being looked at and considered at the highest level; the recent ban (announced, not yet fully implemented) on "Yahweh" songs is the sort of development that is encouraging to see. The trouble isn't that people are breaking the liturgical music rules so much as it is they have no idea what the rules are, other than a vague "old=good/new=bad" or "old=bad/new=good" paradigm that does little to improve the situation (especially since there are some truly bad "old" songs, and a smattering of surprisingly decent "new" ones).

As for the old "Eagle's Wings" conundrum, the problem, as it is with many songs of this type, is that the song isn't actually addressed to God; songs *during* Mass are supposed to be part of the prayer of the people, meaning that they should praise God, petition Him for what we need, thank Him for His many gifts, or focus on the propitiatory sacrifice in some specific way (as in various Eucharistic hymns). We read Scripture during the Liturgy of the Word and also sing it at the responsorial psalm, so adding musical settings of Holy Scripture at other points during the Mass can detract from these; at least, that's what some say, and I think the argument has some points in its favor.

Of course, the other problem with "Eagle's Wings" is that it is so difficult for the average person to sing, since the range is all over the place. Before we discuss whether the sentimentality of some hymns enervate churches, perhaps we could discuss the idea that part of the reason some of the old songs endured was that their melodies were actually capable of being sung by people other than warbling sopranos or would-be operatic tenors?

Richard B, actually the sort of "Iconographic" music you speak of didn't come into existence until the middle ages. From what we can tell, early church music was based off of Greek, Syrian and Hebrew musical styles. (Can you believe Christianity survived for centuries on end without the benefit of organs or Gregorian chants? The heathens! No wonder the dark ages came upon them!) The most common form was a call and answer form of singing.

Hm. I'm not certain what this has to do with what I said about music being treated in an iconographic manner. Obviously, issues of notation being what they are (none for centuries, then neumatic, then diastematic), it's hard to have a sense of what things would have sounded like, but we certainly have Christian hymn *texts* going back to at least the second century (such as "Fos hilaron", aka "O Gladsome Light," which the Orthodox still sing at Vespers), and antiphonal singing, responsorial psalmody and the like is still very much a component of both Orthodox liturgy and Roman Catholic liturgy (particularly in the Gregorian form of the mass). To some extent, early hymnody was even more strictly governed by Tradition because it was used as a way to fight heresy (particularly since heretics like Arius were spreading heresy through their own snappy jingles) and more often than not they were consciously imitating psalms as textual models. In terms of early church music being based off of Greek or Middle Eastern models, well, sure -- there are old Georgian chant manuscripts which are considered to be copies of the books used in the Church of Jerusalem, and the Gregorian church modes are borrowed from the Byzantine modes, which themselves go back to the modes of the ancient Greeks. The hymns of the non-Chalcedonians are to a certain extent the hymns of the Eastern Orthodox as well; the Christmas carol "Let all mortal flesh keep silence" itself goes back to the Divine Liturgy of St. James, the oldest known liturgy still in continuous use (although whether you date it to the first century or the fourth is going to depend somewhat on ideological issues), and is sung still by Chalcedonians and non-Chalcedonians alike. (The St. James liturgy is still one of the principal liturgies of the Indian Orthodox in particular, and it is used by the Eastern Orthodox on 23 October, the Feast of St. James.)

I'm not sure how I see any of that as being in conflict with what I said, although I might suggest that between that and your comment about traditional Chinese music, it strikes me that there's a bit of a Western bias showing through. And sure, sometimes your best stinks. Acknowledging that isn't the problem. The problem is then putting that forward as normative, even preferable, as though by intentionally doing something less than our best it's more "accessible" and therefore better for everybody. The trouble with a strict division between worship and performance when it comes to church music is that to sacrifice one in favor of the other means that you wind up accomplishing neither.

...why yes, I'm a church musician. How did you know?

Richard

Some people worship singing happy-clappy music. Some people worship by handling snakes. Since I think of both happy-clappy music and snake handling with about the same affection, I'd rather not do either, nor worship with those that do.

I understand that those same fine folks might think the same about the old Protestant standards, and that's their priviledge. I just wish they had respect for those that do like the old hymns and had gone to one of the dozens of churchs with the music they like instead of taking over mine, putting up the hymnals, setting up the drums, firing up the guitars, and rocking out for Jesus.

These days I am mostly too busy trying to occupy my 2yo son during Mass to pay attention to the music much. My pet peeve though is inviting the congregation to sing (loudly) right after the Lamb of God, especially when they are songs that only the musicians know (and wrote) and are pretty much only singable by professional musicians. Sometimes they are substituted for the psalm. Grrr. Let's bop our way up to Communion, folks!

I grew up in a church singing standard four-verse American hymns that the average person could actually follow. In my teen years every church seemed to change to "praise and worship" style singing. Although I owned Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith cassette tapes like everybody else, I missed the hymns.

I became Catholic and have been gritting my teeth mostly ever since because of the horrible music. Rarely have I attended a Mass where there was not the happy-clappy or praise-and-worship style going on. I don't demand complex polyphony or even organ music or an orchestra. Just some a capella chant would be nice. Nothing fancy, just in English would be fine. Or even no music at all.

At this point in my life, I'd prefer a shorter, more solemn Mass, rather than the long, drawn-out one meant to "lift" our spirits--by manipulating the feelings with loud emotion-focussed music--that's being offered.

As to the original post, it's not just Britain, but Australia too. See: Hillsong.

A surprising number of the happy-clappy songs in Christiandom today (and I've noticed some erroneous attributions in RC churches) were written in of all places, Waco, Texas, by Baptists, Baptists I knew personally at Baylor. Folks, they did the songs for fun (well in Kurt Kaiser's and Mark Hayes' and Ralph Carmichael's cases, to earn a living). I sang in a couple of their debuts--and nobody ever dreamed that Catholics all over the world would ever be singing ditties dreamed up by then-Southern Baptists (they now belong to the Alliance of Baptists) in Waco. They never took over their hymnody--so why on earth should these songs be so prominent in Catholic worship? I mean, I've belonged to a Baptist church (yep, Baptist) that does Gregorian chant. This is just so odd.

"Can the nose-in-the-air musical snobs get over themselves and lay off the stuff the people actually like and sing?" then you will be infuriated at least once a page.

But Day's point is that most Catholics in the pews don't really like this stuff, as evidenced by the fact that, on any given Sunday, most of them don't sing along, or do so very unenthusiastically. I've been there, and I've heard it (or not).

I like Day's comment that, before Vatican II, the Catholic Church employed what he calls the Stick and the Carrot -- the Stick was the Sunday Mass obligation, the Carrot was the fact that, once you got your body inside the church, you were pretty much left alone. If you wanted to say a rosary during Mass, or read a prayer book, or meditate (or daydream or snooze), you could, and no one bothered you. There were no (or few) amplified voices demanding your attention. Now, he says, the Church employs the Stick and the Stick -- in addition to the Stick of the Sunday Mass obligation, you are also expected to Participate Joyfully and Enthusiastically, and the Sanctuary is filled with people Who Will Not Shut Up, from the priests who insist on "explaining" everything and are in love with the sound of their own voice, to the self-important "song leader" whom Day refers to as "Mr. Caruso". He posits that many people resent this, and show their resentment (and their opinion of the dismal music) by not singing.

I'm pleased to be a member of a traditional Calvinistic church that sings psalms and good old hymns, and where preaching promotes godliness and sober living, not partying and going wacko for Jesus.

As much as this might surprise some, my favorite hymns include things like "St. Patrick's Breastplate," "I Sing the Mighty Power of God" (tune by Mozart), "Come, Holy Ghost," "Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones," and, of course, all the great Easter hymns. "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today," "Crown Him with Many Crowns," "Sing with All the Sons of Glory." Well, now I feel like making a long list!

Of course, pre-Vatican II, most of those were off limits because they were "Protestant." It took me a long time to get used to singing them at Mass. And then it took me another long time to get used to modern songs. Many a Sunday I sat at Mass wincing and going "eww." It doesn't help that I'm emphatically not a soprano, so when the warbling starts, I have to sing tenor. But I came to accept that some people really love those songs, and I learned to like some of them, too.

Face it, the worst problem isn't which hymns Catholics sing, it's how badly they sing them all. After forty years of listening to the lukewarm and half-hearted, I wonder if it's ever going to change. Oh well, I won't be around to hear it if it does.

btw, Erin, what are "Yahweh" songs? I'm surprised they're going to be banned, since the Jerusalem Bible uses that version of God's name. Is that wrong now? Please explain!

Rob,

Much of what you describe was on Word Records [out of Waco] in the 70's. My dad was in their album-of-the-month club and that was, in our house at least, Sunday-morning-get-ready-for-church music.

I realize that a lot of youse religious types here are of a liturgical background, which is definitely not what we do in evangelical/baptist churches. On the other hand, music is probably about 40-50% of a service and a lot of thought goes into it. The amazing thing is that our music director travels a lot for his job and rarely coordinates with what Pastor is speaking on [he often admits to be completely rewriting sermons late on Saturday or early Sunday, anyway, as things change through the week], but they inevitably dovetail nicely.

There, however, are some songs I wish John, the regular music director, and Jerry, his backup, would not do, but as Erin said it isn't for the message so much as they make them so blipping unsingable. "Shine, Jesus, Shine" is not an andante song, more to allegro and vivace, but that's how they do it, every time--Shhhhhiiiiiiinnnnne, Jeeeessssuuuuusss, Shiiiinnne, fiiilllll thhiiisss land...-- it's like an old phonograph 33 LP got stuck on 16 RPM. Definitely not happy clappy, though it is intended to be. "What a Mighty God We Serve" is another one-- they get the beats wrong and do it toooo sloooooowwwww.

All that said, I prefer, in service, to have olderish hymns, mostly. I like Blessed Quietness, and Be Thou My Vision,both of which I used as lullabies for my kids, and Victory in Jesus, which is probably the Baptist national anthem. Eternal Father, Strong to Save I remember mostly as being sung for Memorial Day and Thanksgiving, don't ask me why because I don't have the foggiest.

Blessed Quietness goes like this: "Joys are flowing like a river/Now the Comforter has come/He abides with us forever/Makes the broken heart His home/Blessed quietness, holy quietness, what assurance in my soul/On the stormy sea/ He speaks peace to me/How the billows cease to roll." Garrison Keillor once said that he changed the last part, to sing to his infant son, into "Blessed quietness, holy quietness, hope you sleep the whole night through/Now your mom and dad/Will go up to bed/Maybe make some more like you." A good sentiment, indeed. :)

Mercy is indeed important, especially directed at the choir; we have so little control over the music, you know! :)

Actually, the little Catholic parish I go to now is deeply unusual: everybody sings! And they appreciate the choir to the point of coming up to us individually at coffee and doughnuts afterward to thank us--I've never been anywhere even remotely like it.

Sig, you've listed some of my favorites, too. :) As a decided soprano--I'd be a first soprano in a bigger choir, most likely--I've got the opposite problem: so many congregational songs seem to hover somewhere just below and just above middle "C," and since sopranos nearly always get the melody my voice will give out long before Mass is over if I don't sneak sips of water when we're not singing.

But once in a while I get to do something fun: got to sing Gabriel Faure's "Pie Jesu" after Communion a couple of months ago, and with Advent/Christmas approaching I know more opportunities like that will come up.

Say, that gives me an idea--if Rod will indulge a little more derailing of this thread! We're a small choir, and in addition to planning Christmas Mass we're trying to put together a little "caroling" fundraiser to raise money to buy a real piano for the church (too small for an organ, currently use a temperamental electronic piano that sulkily shorts out if the volume is raised too high, much to the consternation of our young pianist). Does anyone have suggestions for Christmas pieces that can be sung by a smallish group? (There are about fifteen of us, plus our two musicians). We lack basses at present and would do best with pieces where the bass part isn't going to be too terribly conspicuous by its absence (if our one bass can't be there). I know we'll plan several of the more familiar and beloved of carols, and our director who plays the violin angelically will probably do a duet with our pianist (when she plays the Bach/Gounoud Ave Maria it's heavenly, truly) but not having been "back" in choir long I'm not aware of too many simple choral pieces suitable for a small choir. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

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.