Defining Hymnal

Hymnals have been with us forever, it seems; and everyone knows what a hymnal is, right? Well, that turns out not to be the case.

Some years ago a United Methodist did not like what he read in a publication of worship services and resources published by Discipleship Ministries. His objections were theological and political, and his efforts to organize opposition to the resources culminated in a United Methodist Judicial Council ruling that Discipleship Ministries (or any other individual or entity) could not publish and commend to the church for its use new services and ritual because our Book of Discipline reserves to General Conference the authority to approve and establish the official ritual of the church. In its ruling, the Judicial Council went on to affirm the Book of Discipline's naming the only sources that contain the church's official ritual as the official hymnals and the Book of Worship. Thus, the Judicial Council has affirmed the Discipline's naming of our ritual, the source for that ritual, and the body and method for establishing and revising it. The important thing here is that the official United Methodist ritual and services are those contained in our approved hymnals (all three of them: The United Methodist Hymnal, Mil Voces Para Celebrar, Come Let Us Worship) and The Book of Worship.

One result of this clear and definitive ruling from the Judicial Council is that, since the ruling, the agencies of the church engaged in publishing hymns and liturgy for worship have been careful, even reluctant, in applying the term "hymnal" to their publications. They hope to avoid any implication that the contents of nonofficial publications, that is, publications not constituted or approved by General Conference, such as The Faith We Sing, Global Praise, Zion Still Sings, Fiesta Cristiana, and the Africana Worship Series, are officially sanctioned and commended as United Methodist ritual and song. Thus, we have labored to talk about these publications in other terms, including songbook, worshipbook, collection, compendium, and similar terms; but we avoid calling them hymnals.

Years after that Judicial Council ruling, we are faced with the challenge posed by technology. As stated in the opening sentence above, everyone knows what a hymnal is. In its broadest and most-used sense, it is a book with pages and cover that contains the songs, prayers, and liturgy that we use in worship. It is what we sing from in worship and what provides us the words for congregational worship. Today, however, it's not so straightforward. Today we sing and worship from our hymnals, but we also sing and worship from projection screens, computer screens, IPods, Kindles, and other hand-held devices (including cell phones), printed worship bulletins, and homemade song sheets and booklets. In addition, the actual source of materials for these devices may be CD-ROM, DVD, overhead projector, websites, e-mail messages, television broadcast, Internet podcast, satellite feed, or some other source -- even a tiny, computer chip. The simple and universal definition, understanding, and use of hymnal has changed considerably. Can we somehow consider ALL these in some sense to come under the term hymnal? And if so, what impact does that have on the Judicial Council ruling and the agencies' use or avoidance of the term?

While the Book of Discipline limits our official body of ritual and hymnody to be that contained in our official hymnals and Book of Worship, neither the Book of Discipline nor the Judicial Council has actually defined what a hymnal is. And even if they had, there is a larger, broader definition that results from centuries of common use and practice by clergy, laity, academics, worship professionals, authors and composers, publishers, and dictionaries. I am hopeful that as technology, publishing, and worship practice evolve and progress, we will adopt a very broad understanding of what a hymnal is and not restrict the use of that term. Professionals and practitioners need to be able to use the term to refer to a wide array of products and sources and not just to pages bound by two covers. More importantly, people -- those who are the end users of our hymnals -- should be encouraged to understand that the hymnal is more than the book that sits in the pew rack that gets used on Sunday morning.