I love singing and humming and to always be found doing one of the mentioned. It is me! Mum always says I am like her Mum, who hummed and softly sang her way through life and who, again like me, often not consciously. Are you the same? Music and lyrics can be so important to our wellbeing.
Sue says in her thoughts much about hymns and how they make our faith, our absorbed theology and how difficult and painful it is not to sing in church. I remember Mum saying that whilst in Monmouth Bishop Dominic Walker used to say that hymns in worship are the opportunity for liturgical movement, but surely it is more than that. Why are some so important to us, because of where we are at that moment in time? Is it the words and tunes have emotional links and ties for us? Do we need the comfort of things that we sung and shared years ago but are still relevant to us today? - Becky
"A few years ago, I was asked to give a talk to a Church Women’s group. I posed the question, in the manner of that ever popular radio programme Desert Island Discs, ‘If you were marooned on a desert island, recordings of which six hymns would you like to have with you?’
Some of the ladies kindly took on the challenge. The first thing that struck me about the various selections was their sheer diversity. In all, 46 separate hymns were chosen. So, if everybody ends up on the desert island, there will be quite a reasonable body of hymns to choose from for our Sunday worship.
Several people commented that they found it very difficult to narrow their choices down to six, and one lady ingeniously sought to widen her choice by nominating seven excellent hymns in joint sixth place! And the choices were truly ancient and modern, with the oldest having words originating in the sixth century, and the most recent from the latter part of the twentieth century.
Of the hymns which appeared on several lists, the most popular were “Jerusalem”, “Lord, for the years”, and “Brother, sister, let me serve you”, which were each chosen by three ladies. Not surprisingly, a number of choices, but not the majority, reflected the most popular results of the Songs of Praise national poll. There were also some interesting omissions; I was surprised that nobody chose “Guide me, O thou great Redeemer”, given that they would be stuck in a barren land.
There were also no Christmas carols. But perhaps the most fascinating outcome was the range and depth of the reasons that lay behind the individual choices. Many hymns were chosen because of what the words say about God, or about our own relationship with God. Others brought back memories of the highs and lows of life – school and Sunday school, other childhood memories, and events in life such as weddings and funerals. Some were described as comforting or uplifting, and one, “Father, hear the prayer we offer”, was credited with having provided comfort and support in childbirth.
And in some cases, the tunes were important, too. I also invited respondents to say which of their choices was the one they would most wish to survive should the recordings be damaged in the shipwreck. These were: “Christ is surely coming”, “Christ triumphant”, “Fill thou my life O God”, “I danced in the morning (Lord of the dance)”, “It is well with my soul”, “Let all mortal flesh keep silence”, “Make me a channel of your peace”, and “O Lord, my God (How great thou art)”.
Hymns are said to be one of the most important elements of our worship, which is one reason why the current prohibition on the congregation singing them in church is so tragic. Apparently, we absorb a lot of our theology from the words we sing and, typically, the hymns sung are what we are all most likely to remember longest from a service. But this exercise shows that hymns are also of much wider influence on our lives, providing comfort and support to each of us in so many different and personal ways. How grateful we should be to hymn writers, both ancient and modern for the comfort and pleasure their words bring to us."
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