Thinking About a New Hymnal #2—Global and Multicultural Songs

A hymnal has always served as a great unifying force in a denomination, providing common resources for congregational singing, prayer, ritual, liturgy, sacraments, worship, and theology. Prior to the 1968 merger of the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church, both denominations used their own hymnals. Because the Methodist Hymnal had been released only two years prior to the merger that formed The United Methodist Church, there was no new hymnal for the new denomination until 1989, when our present hymnal was released. The new United Methodist Hymnal replaced both its predecessors, and the 1966 Methodist Hymnal and the 1957 hymnal of the EUB church were withdrawn. Twenty-one years after the merger, the new church finally had its first common hymnal.

In recent years, we have seen the publication of multiple official denominational hymnals. Mil Voces Para Celebrar, the official Spanish language hymnal of The United Methodist Church, was published in 1995. In 2001, Come, Let Us Worship, the official bilingual Korean-English hymnal of the UMC was released. Thus, today there are three official denominational hymnals of The United Methodist Church, all of which enjoy an equal status. There is no one hymnal more important or official than another.

While there are no other official hymnals of our church, there are a number of unofficial songbooks developed in recent years or now being developed, some with the financial and editorial assistance of general agencies. Some of these include hymnals for the following nations or languages: French, Vietnamese, Cambodia, Germany, Denmark, Russia, Hmong, Cameroon, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, and others.

It is obvious that the day when a single official denominational hymnal could meet the needs of the UMC is long passed. Our church is so large, so diverse in so many ways -- language, culture, heritage, worship practice, liturgy, geography, and not least of all, musical style -- that a single hymnal simply cannot serve us all. While it was not so intended, our current 1989 United Methodist Hymnal probably comes closest to that one-hymnal-for-all concept. Here is a partial list of its global and ethnic contents, the nation or language of origin, and the number of hymn selections:

Hispanic	18	Israeli	2
Asian	15	Laotian	1
Native American	5	Latin	12
African American	28	Malawi	1
African	5	Pakistani	1
Austrian	1	Philippine	1
Chinese	1	Polish	2
Croatian	1	Puerto Rico	1
Czech	1	Punjabi	1
Dutch	1	Scottish	2
English	16	Scandinavian	4
French	13	Swedish	2
French Canadian	1	Taiwanese	1
Gaelic	1	Thai	1
German	4	United States	16
Greek	8	Venezuelan	1
Hindi	1	Welsh	5
Indian	2	West Indian	1
Irish	3	TOTAL ETHNIC HYMNS	180

One result of this global and ethnic diversity is that our hymnal provides a connection for worshipers in the U.S.A. to people all over the world through a sharing of their music. It reminds us that we are part of a global church. It helps to keep us from being so insular and self-contained.

And how does this square with recent research by the General Conference music and worship study? We have learned that in the UMC in the U.S.A. today, with its large majority of Baby Boomers:

• Use of global music is low
• Use of secondary language is low
• Use of ethnic music is moderate

There are others in the church calling for new resources for global songs and multiple languages, along with training in how to use them well.

There were some interesting and helpful comments from seminary professors:

• "To sing another person's language and song is to unite ourselves in solidarity with the whole church. When we stretch ourselves and our 'preferences,' we move beyond the parochial to a broader understanding of the church."
• [Use of global music is] "absolutely critical -- and even more important if you don't have people in your congregation who represent the ethnicity of the music you're singing. We are no longer a country in isolation, but part of a global economy and political entity -- and music in our worship needs to reflect this, and with the array of resources currently available, 'I Don't Know How To Do It' is no longer a valid excuse!"
• "To a large extent, while the question suggests that this is new, it isn't. Every one of our hymnals for the past century has represented some kind of blend of musical styles -- chant, Victorian part song, Lutheran chorale, Genevan psalm tune. What is new is the multiplication of styles. For me the question isn't the importance of singing in multiple styles, but how any particular style facilitates the worship by a congregation and how it serves the liturgy in a particular time and place."

We know that as younger generations come into prominence and majority in the UMC, they will bring with them their interest in and desire to sing global songs, ethnic music, and multilingual lyrics. How this will affect a new hymnal for United Methodists in the U.S.A. remains to be seen, but a new U.S.A. hymnal will certainly need to continue to reflect the global nature of the church in language and musical style.