Upper Room Worshipbook (Singer Edition) and Upper Room Worshipbook (Accompaniment and Worship Leader

Upper Room Worshipbook (Singer Edition)

The Singer Edition of the Upper Room Worshipbook (Revised): Music and Liturgies for Spiritual Formation is really a completely new and different songbook from the first edition of that title released in 1985. As with the 1985 release, the revision has been compiled and edited by Elise S. Eslinger, who brings to the task a lifetime of worship, music, and teaching ministry.

The Upper Room Worshipbook (URW), released in 2006, is different from most congregational songbooks or hymnal supplements that feature beloved, traditional hymns and songs for worship. While it also includes some of these, URW is a great source for new and previously unpublished hymns and songs, choruses and chants, ethnic and global songs, Communion settings, and contemporary hymns especially suited to ecumenical settings.

The Upper Room Worshipbook contains new liturgies for daily prayer, Holy Communion, and other uses, along with an extensive selection of psalm settings and prayer songs. It is ideal for retreats, choral music, personal devotional practices, as well as congregational worship use with classical worship forms such as Evensong or Taizé.

Upper Room Worshipbook (Accompaniment and Worship Leader Edition)

The Upper Room Worshipbook (Accompaniment and Worship Leader Edition) (AWL) has just been released (June 2007) and is now available for purchase and use. It includes all the contents of the Singer Edition, along with alternate prayers and liturgical texts and tools for the worship planner and leader, accompanist, or other musician. There are full keyboard accompaniments; alternate keyboard and guitar chording; solo, cantor, and instrumental options. The second and third sections of the AWL include interpretive essays designed to help the user in understanding and using the contents. There is a full set of indexes in the back, with an especially generous scriptural index. A unique feature of the book is its "Index of Images, Themes, and Topics." Most songbooks include a few pages of topical index that help the user relate a song to a theme, topic, or season. This greatly expanded index of forty-three pages (!) is probably worth the cost of the book by itself.

The AWL is available in a blue vinyl 3-ring binder measuring 11 5/16" by 11 ½" x 3", containing 3-hole drilled 8 ½" x 11" pages.