Thinking About a New Hymnal #3—A Hymnal for African Americans

Until recently, United Methodists and predecessor denominations saw no reason to have more than one official hymnal to contain our hymnody, liturgy, ritual, and worship resources. If we look at the Methodist Episcopal Church's hymnals, we see that they were published in 1786, 1802, 1808, 1821, 1836, 1849, and 1878. The 1905 hymnal was Pan-Methodist, published by three Methodist denominations headed for merger. The 1935 hymnal anticipated the completion of the merger in 1939, followed by the 1966 Methodist Hymnal and our present 1989 United Methodist Hymnal. In all these cases, there was one hymnal for the entire denomination.

This changed in the late twentieth century with heightened awareness of the importance of ethnic, language, and geographical constituencies and their cultural distinctives. During the years leading to the 1989 hymnal, the Discipleship Ministries and the United Methodist Publishing House together and individually released a number of supplemental songbooks that included hymns and songs for Spanish, African American, Native American, and Asian constituencies, as well as a contemporary supplemental hymnbook. Numerous selections from all of these were included in the 1989 hymnal, which is the most inclusive and diverse hymnal ever issued by our church. Other volumes followed, including several by the Global Praise division of the General Board of Global Ministries.

Following publication of the 1989 hymnal, General Conference moved the church to a new direction in hymnal publishing. Rather than relying on a single inclusive volume to serve the needs of a diverse church, it mandated the development and release of two additional official hymnals:

• 1995, Mil Voces Para Celebrar (Spanish language)
• 2001, Come, Let Us Worship (Korean-English bilingual)

For the first time, the church had multiple official denominational hymnals, none of which is to be considered more authoritative, more important, or more official than the others; they are equals. And even with this diversity in official hymnals, we continued to release song supplements. Songs of Zion, a collection of songs and hymns important to the black church was released in 1981. It has continued to serve the denomination and remains in print and available today. It is widely available in pews and choir rooms of both black and white churches.

Zion Still Sings, a new supplemental songbook with much new and traditional music important to the African American church, was released in 2007. The editorial committee for this book was aware that most congregations already owned and used Songs of Zion and The United Methodist Hymnal, and many had also acquired The African American Heritage Hymnal. Consequently, Zion Still Sings' contents reflect its nature as a supplement to those three already existing volumes.

Discipleship Ministries's (Discipleship Ministries) board of directors, meeting in August 2007, wanted to move forward on the proposal to develop a new hymnal for the U.S.A. that would replace the 1989 hymnal. It was troubled, however, by the lack of an official hymnal for African Americans. Songs of Zion and Zion Still Sings, as marvelous as they are, are not hymnals. They contain no ritual, liturgy, or worship resources, no Psalter or Scripture; and they were developed outside the rigorous process that normally goes with a General Conference mandate to develop an official hymnal. They are song supplements, not intended to function as official hymnals.

Discipleship Ministries board of directors carefully considered what to do. The board members decided to propose two hymnals rather than one. They proposed a new hymnal for the U.S.A. that will replace the 1989 hymnal, but they also proposed a four-year study to examine the need for and issues around developing a hymnal for African Americans and Africana people. (Africana people are those who trace their ancestry back to Africa but who settled outside Africa. They include people in South America, the Caribbean, the U.S.A. and North America, Central America, and other parts of the world.)

The United Methoidst Publishing House added its support for this study, which will seek to identify who the Africana people are; how many people and churches there are; what this constituency wants and needs; how these aspirations and expectations fit with the mission and ministry priorities of the UMC; what the prospects are for developing a resource that can be delivered in a cost-effective way to meet the needs of a sufficiently large market segment; the array of options for various ways to develop one or more resources (content, formats, etc.); and on what timetable.

If the four-year study of an Africana hymnal is approved by General Conference, the committee will report its recommendations back to Discipleship Ministries and The United Methodist Publishing House for reporting and possible enabling petition to the 2012 General Conference in accordance with Book of Discipline, paragraph 1114.3.

What are the main arguments for and against an official Africana hymnal? Those in favor point out that African Americans and Africana people are the only major constituency of the North American UMC for whom there is no official hymnal containing hymns, songs, liturgy, and worship resources that reflect their unique cultural expressions. Others make the case that recent additional official hymnals have been developed for constituencies who speak languages other than English, and that it is better to include the needs of English speaking African Americans and Africana people within one official English language hymnal that serves the entire denomination in North America.

In the 40-plus years since publication of the 1966 Methodist Hymnal, we United Methodists have been engaged in producing hymnals and songbooks at an unprecedented pace for our denomination that would take away the breath of even John Wesley. This is partly due to the rapid rate of change in our society and culture. Change comes at a greater degree and at a faster pace than it once did. We are also more culturally and historically aware. Who we are is important to us, and that includes language, culture, geography, customs, and certainly worship practice and musical style.

Both petitions -- one for a new official hymnal for North America and one for a four-year study into the need for an Africana hymnal -- are available on this site.