Care with the Blue: Sub-Committee on Congregational Song

I've taken a bit of a break after those the previous two rather long pieces of work, but am going to start again today by moving on to the third sub-committee from the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music, the sub-committee on the congregational song.

Summary of the Report
This sub-committee had a mandate to respond to two separate resolutions from the 78th GC. First, they were "empowered" to further our church's mission by "enlivening and invigorating congregational song through the development of a variety of musical resources." This included developing and expanding the work of the "World Music Project." Second, they were tasked with developing a plan for revision of the Hymnal 1982.

A few words of background on the first mandate. As an Episcopal News Service article in advance of the last Convention notes:

Completing the World Music Project to provide affordable musical resources for Province IX and non-European-American clergy and musicians is a top priority, said Ana Hernandez, task force chair. The task force hopes to have three face-to-face meetings to collect and edit materials, secure copyrights and make the resources available for sharing via a website that can continue to grow. 

“What we would like to do is actually work with people in Province IX to gather things that they’re using and get them typeset and printed so that people here can see them,” Hernandez said. “There’s stuff all over the place that’s out there. It just needs to be collected and curated so that we can spread it around.” 

The task force also has identified about three dozen congregations to work with it and provide feedback through a survey, now being developed, on “how music actually works in their individual parishes,” she said.

The complete lack of adequate authorized musical resources for non-European-American congregations within TEC continues to be a glaring issue. There was a Spanish-language hymnal published (El Himnario) but it is now out-of-print and impossible to get a hold of. In my own parish, our Spanish-language worship service uses Flor y Canto—a great resource that also makes available a set of CDs of all the music played by professionals and versions of the songs in keyboard or guitar chord/tab format. It's been a life-saver.

However, Resolution A060 was not funded by General Convention and so the work done in this past triennium was minimal. Further, the sub-committee's understanding of the scope of their work is apparently focused only on discerning "which hymns and songs are being sung in parishes in the Episcopal Church," seeking to bring together one person from each province for a symposium in the next triennium. There is nothing in their report about the work they did (or did not do) with regard to the World Music Project.

When it comes to hymnal revision, the SCLM declined to take action. Like A060, this resolution was also not funded, but there were deeper reasons not to move forward. They noted that it would be highly irregular to revise a hymnal before revising a prayer book and since prayer book revision conversations had already begun, those should first be concluded. Furthermore, they emphasized that the Church Pension Group already did a lengthy and serious survey on this topic that did not find widespread interest in hymnal revision.

Reactions to the Report
This report left me with mixed feelings. Most specifically, I think it is evocative of the inadequate priorities of much of TEC in our day and age. As I read it, there were three subjects given to this sub-committee—none of which were actually funded.

The call to work for the "enlivening and invigorating congregational song through the development of a variety of musical resources," would be needed work for resources we do not currently have. The Hymnal 1982, along with its supplements, clearly prove to be effective and useful to the majority of Episcopal congregations. However, as I noted above, we have no authorized musical resources for Spanish-language worship—despite the fact that we have committed millions of dollars in church planting work, including planting more Spanish-language communities of faith.

When the sub-committee received this resolution, they oddly seemed to focus only on the question of collecting information about what hymns are currently being used. They said nothing about the World Music Project and why it was apparently discarded. Furthermore, if we do need to figure out what hymns and musical pieces are being used throughout the church (and I'm doubtful there is a real good reason to do that right now), an in-person symposium may be the least effective way to get that information. A simple survey, contracted through the Church Pension Group, could easily get at that information.

But my real concern is that the focus seems to be on existing musical resources instead of the much-needed work of developing resources for Episcopal communities who worship in languages other than English. Either there was an oversight in the report in not reflecting that work or this remains a significant blindspot in the SCLM.

On the other hand, I am abundantly grateful that they declined to take action on hymnal revision. All three reasons given are compelling. The resolution was not funded. It does not make sense to revise a hymnal before revising a prayer book. And there is not widespread interest in hymnal revision in our church. Hymnal revision is a solution in search of a problem. Indeed, if you look through the CPG survey linked to above, you'll note that the groups most opposed to hymnal revision are those who are over 70 and under 35. A majority of laity are not in favor of it, no matter the age group. The only group with a majority in favor is baby-boomer clergy.

I hope this will finally put this issue to rest so we can get on with more pressing work: providing musical resources for our Spanish-speaking congregations and engaging thoughtfully and prayerfully in the question of prayer book revision.

In the meantime, I personally would love to see General Convention authorize Flor y Canto for use in our church. Or, if some of the language and structure is too "catholic" for our members, then let's not create our own liturgical resource but instead let's work with OCP in creating an Episcopal Church version of Flor y Canto. There is no need to re-invent the wheel here.

Note: You can click here for a list of all Blue Book Reports & Resolutions that have thus far been reviewed.