The songs/hymns we sing in worship continue to shape us. Nobody goes home humming the sermon. We can preach until we are blue in the face only to have our efforts contradicted by an old favourite hymn that re-inscribes an old theology and perpetuates doctrines we no longer teach. So, I for one,  am always on the lookout for new songs to sing during worship. My latest find is a new collection that has just been released by The Hymn society of the U.S. and Canada: “Songs for the Holy Other: Hymns Affirming the LGBTQIA2S+ Community.”  The collection contains 48 songs for congregational use.

GOOD NEWS this collection is a free download – in exchange for your email address!   Follow this link – Hymn Society

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They Don’t Go Home Humming the Sermon

Liturgy has the power to from us in ways that preachers can only dream of. The truth is worshippers don’t go home humming the sermon. What we sing in worship matters precisely because music has the power to both open us up and shut us down to change. As our theology evolves, so too what we sing in worship must evolve. But familiar chestnuts  are familiar for a reason. Our favourite hymns are singable! Sadly, so many of the best loved hymns inscribe theologies that posit a god that few of us are willing to worship. But rather than throw the babies out with the bath water, we can give the best loved hymn tunes a new lease on life with texts that do not re-inscribe theories of atonement that we are trying to leave behind. I have been asked to share some of the resources that we have found helpful at Holy Cross and over the next few weeks I hope to post several resources.

It hasn’t been easy to find new words with which to resurrect old hymns. But there are two resources that warm the heart of this particular worship planner. Both “Inclusive Hymns For Liberating Christians” and “Inclusive Hymns for Liberation, Peace, and Justice” are the work of Jann Aldredge-Clanton who is responsible for the hymn texts and Larry E. Schultz who provides a few new tunes for Aldredge-Clanton’s texts. I highly recommend both volumes for those progressive Christian worship planners who seek to use music to open people to the possibilities of  more expansive theologies. Aldredge-Clanton’s texts go far beyond “inclusive language” for God and for people.

Jann Aldredge-Clanton currently serves as adjunct professor at Perkins School of Theology and Richland Community College, Dallas, Texas. Her vivid imagery opens the mind while familiar tunes comfort the spirit.  

The good news is that although these resources are not easy to get in Canada, I ordered mine from Amazon.com in the U.S. and the shipping charges were minimal. Better yet, with the purchase of 10 or more you get permission to reproduce hymns for worship.

Here are two videos that provide of just two of the pieces sung in very different worship styles.

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 To the Tune of a Welcoming God

David R. Weiss’ “To the Tune of a Welcoming God: Lyrical reflections on sexuality, spirituality, and the widness of God’s welcome” is a wonderful resource for worship planners who are searching for ways to engage worshippers in the difficult task of breaking down barriers to inclusion. As I wrote in the previous post, “they don’t go home humming the sermon!” Music opens our very selves to that which is beyond ourselves and Weiss has written some powerful texts that can be coupled with well loved, familiar hymn tunes. I was first exposed to Weiss’ way with words a number of years ago when Lutheran’s Concerned included his “O Christ Who Came” in their worship resources for the celebration of Reconciling in Christ Sunday. When set to the tune of LONDONDERRY AIR (that’s O’ Danny Boy, for the uninitiated), Weiss’ words provide an expansive welcome that we have often sung with gusto at Holy Cross. So, I was delighted to discover, on iTunes of all places, the album “To the Tune of a Welcoming God” by Sara Kay. After quickly downloading, I began to listen to all sorts of possibilities for worship in Weiss’ splendid texts set to familiar tunes. In addition to providing hymn texts that expand our vision of what it means to extend a welcome to the GLBT community, Weiss’ texts open worshippers to images of God that move us beyond words as they open us to theologies that embrace the reality of the cosmos. You can follow this link to find a copy of the hymn texts.

In addition to the hymn texts, Weiss’ book provides a collection of essays in which Weiss offers a vision of what the Church can become. Weiss is writes from his own Lutheran perspective reflecting his own struggles in work of building a more inclusive church. Weiss opens the book with his own “Credo” which I look forward to using in liturgy as an “Affirmation of Faith”. 

Credo: By David R. Weiss

I believe in God,
The Great Mystery that is the Source of all that is,
I believe that God is beyond our words
And surely beyond our genders,
But that we are still invited to name God as best we can,
With humility and wonder.
I believe in God’s love for all creation, not just humanity.
I believe in God’s yearning,
That justice hold sway in every corner of creation
And in God’s anxious longing
For Sabbath joy to fill the cosmos.

I believe that the deep beauty of Jesus’ life
Is a true revelation of God’s desire to see compassion
At the center of human community.
I believe that Jesus’ healings, parables, and table fellowship
Reveal the truth of God active in our midst.
And I believe that in Jesus’ life
We hear an invitation to echo such compassion
In our own lives.

I believe that Jesus’ death
Reminds us that oppressive power
Will stop at nothing –
Then or now – to silence compassion.
And I believe that resurrection
Names the miracle that takes place –
Then and now – whenever we rededicate
Our lives to compassion
Thereby announcing that even death
Cannot silence the love of God.

I believe that besides Jesus’ life
And besides the biblical text,
Other lives and other texts also bear the truth of God –
And that our lives are richer for listening well
To the movement of God in many places.

I believe that God continues to be present still today
And that the Holy Breath of God blows
Whenever and wherever compassion is born,
Whether in our words, deeds, or rituals.
I believe we have a special responsibility
To gather in community and share rituals,
Both ancient and fresh,
That exercise our imaginations,
Both bodily and spiritually
For the practice of compassion.

I believe that in our lives
We have the capacity to move God,
This loving mystery that dwells at the heart of all that is,
To the point of tears.

And I commit myself,
With my brothers and sisters and the whole of creation,
To living in ways that seek to move God to tears of joy.

Amen.