Thoughts on the New Hymnal

Back in 2018, the church announced that a new hymnal would be forthcoming. After a few years with no apparent motion, I kind of gave up. However, last week, the first batch of hymns came out in English. Other languages will follow. Thirteen hymns were released, and the project is expected to take until 2026, when the full print and digital version will be released in English, with other languages as they’re ready.

The hymns are numbered beginning with 1001, and the organization is currently in two sections – “Sabbath and Weekday” and “Easter and Christmas”. I’m assuming/hoping that these are placeholder numbers, because as it stands, the hymns aren’t organized topically or thematically, and it seems a bit haphazard. The new hymnal will contain both regular hymns and primary songs, and for ease of organization, I hope when it’s complete, the different types are grouped together. The hymn numbers will be standardized across languages, which will be a benefit to multi-language congregations.

Of the new hymns, I knew about half of them already. Come, Thou Found of Every Blessing is included, to the joy of many. I had planned to incorporate it into sacrament meeting later in the month, but last night I got a request to make it next week’s closing hymn. With the support of the organist, I agreed. I’m going to coordinate with the other music chairs in my stake to see about getting a fireside together so we can all become familiar with the new hymns. I’ll probably make it a recurring series as new batches are released.

A few of the hymns aren’t well arranged for congregational singing, and some alto friends I have are particularly disappointed in the alto lines. Overall, however, I think this is a good start. The collection is called Hymns – For Home and Church. I’m glad they resisted the impulse to slap “The Family ™” brand all over it.

Over the next little while, I’ll be highlighting some of these for the sacred music Sunday series.