Counterpoint: Receiving Change with Grace and Gratitude

I only truly disagree with Jonathan on one point from his recent post about the new hymnal, and it’s probably not the part you would expect.

In his post, Jonathan notes something that different churches do: “Other churches have gospel choirs or hand bells or rock bands.” The implication is that our church does not have handbells, which is where I disagree. As a member of the Bells at Temple Square, I can confirm that we do have at least one official bell choir run by the Church. In addition, I have performed with handbell choirs in sacrament meetings around northern Utah and have talked to people who have done similar activities in Idaho. So, while it is uncommon in Latter-day Saint worship services, handbells are not entirely absent from our tradition.

Persnicketiness about hobbies aside, Jonathan is right about the hymnbook—it will invariably have disappointments to everyone in the Church. By sheer volume constraints alone, there will be a lot lost. The new hymnbook is announced to have somewhere around 500 songs in it to cover the functions of both our current hymnal and our children’s songbook. Currently, in the English language versions there are 341 hymns and 285 children’s songs, for a total of 626 songs. Thus, even if there were no new songs being added, we would lose over 100 songs. But we know that we will be adding new songs from the non-English hymnals and songbooks published by the Church, from other Christian traditions, and from the 17,000 songs that were submitted for consideration. So, yes, each of us will likely have some of our favorite hymns lost and replaced with hymns that we (as individuals) are not as keen on. And, as the old saying goes, “blessed are they who expect nothing, for they shall not be disappointed.”

That being said, I still believe that there will be reasons to embrace and love the new hymnal. While it is reasonable to mentally steel ourselves for disappointments as a way to practice not hating the hymnbook, we need to also practice celebrating and expressing gratitude for the aspects that we do like. Thomas S. Monson explained the effect of this type of gratitude:

• “Regardless of our circumstances, each of us has much for which to be grateful if we will but pause and contemplate our blessings.”^[1]
• “My brothers and sisters, to express gratitude is gracious and honorable, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live with gratitude ever in our hearts is to touch heaven.”^[2]
• “We can lift ourselves and others as well when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude.”^[3]

While naive optimism and ignoring problems like the proverbial ostrich can be unhealthy, looking for things to be grateful for and embracing that gratitude about what is being included that you do like will generally result in greater happiness than finding and fixating on everything that does not meet your expectations. Thus, for practicing not hating the new hymnbook, I recommend looking for aspects of the hymnbook that you do love (as it becomes available).

One area that I have heard repeated concerns about the introduction of new hymns is that members will not want to learn them, especially since we do not have time set aside for learning new hymns at church. (REC911’s comment on Jonathan’s post is only one occasion out of many that I’ve heard that concern voiced.) But here’s the thing – all hymns were introduced somewhere along the way before they were embraced. We’re not limited to singing Gregorian chants or the hymns of early Christians like Ephrem the Syrian that have been passed down from antiquity. On a less hyperbolic level, there are several new hymns introduced in the 1985 hymnbook that are beloved parts of our musical repertoire today. Consider the following handful of examples that were included in the 1985 English hymnal for the first time:

• “Press Forward, Saints”
• “How Great Thou Art”
• “Our Savior’s Love”
• “Where Can I Turn for Peace?”
• “I Believe in Christ”
• “My Redeemer Lives”
• “Hark, All Ye Nations!”
• “I Am a Child of God”

These examples are well known and frequently sung in the Church today. Are there some of the hymns in the hymnbook today that haven’t become known after being introduced in the 1985 hymnbook? Yes—the hymns written by Paul L. Anderson, for example, are fantastic hymns that remain relatively unknown. But my point here is that hymns can be learned and become part of our congregational and personal repertoires even if they are new to us.

That being said, there will need to be an effort that goes into introducing these new hymns. And I admit, as a child of the 1990s, I may be underestimating the amount of effort that takes when a new hymnal is introduced. But there are a couple things that I have seen work in wards to introduce unfamiliar hymns that could help with the process:

• Using the ward choir as a place to learn new hymns. This has two effects – it creates a core group of ward members who are now familiar with the song that is being introduced. It also introduces the broader congregation to the hymn when sung in sacrament meeting. I’ve seen some wards sing hymns directly out of the hymnal while doing this—and it works great. I’ve also seen wards using arrangements that rely very much on the hymnbook (in the style of a Hymnplicity arrangement) have a similar effect.
• Introduce hymns gradually into congregational worship. I have seen success with this when the person selecting the hymns uses mostly familiar, beloved hymns and a smaller amount of unfamiliar hymns (one at most per sacrament meeting). It works even better when a new hymn is introduced and then is repeated every 3-6 months afterwards until the congregation gets used to it.
  • In my last ward, I was chorister for three years and managed to introduce a handful of hymns that the ward became comfortable with through using this approach (comfort level gauged by anecdotal observance of volume levels).
  • One statistician analyzed the selections of the hymns we sang and compared it to more general trends. They found that the ward was “in 70th percentile for # of unique hymns per year: you averaged 110 and the overall average is around 105. You’re also in the 92nd percentile for how often you sing less common hymns, so whatever system you’re using is indeed working.” They went on to add that there were several examples that “you sang multiple times each” that are usually “once-a-generation or rarer.”^[4] So, it was a successful approach.
• Use the Church’s Music Resources to Learn the Hymns at Home. The Church has indicated it is recording the new hymns and songs and will eventually share these recordings along with the hymnal. Thus, even if you don’t have access to a piano at home, you still have the opportunity to do your own hymn learning time outside of official church meetings.

Altogether, there are a variety of things we can do to embrace the new hymnbook and accept it with grace. And remember, this isn’t the first time we have updated the hymnbook. Officially, this is the sixth or seventh iteration of official Latter-day Saint hymnbooks (depending on how you track things). Each time the hymnbook has been updated, there have been lessons learned about what works and what does not. The fact that we have around 190 years of experience with publishing hymnbooks as a Church does give me some confidence that those in charge of the process know what they are doing, all the more due to the level of input they sought out from the general membership of the Church. And as Jonathan Green wrote about the forthcoming hymnbook, “The goal is not to add one more thing that we can criticize and belittle, but to join our voices in worship.”

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As a way of sharing a few resources I mentioned in the comments, here are previous updates: 

• Hymnbook Watch January 2024
• Hymnal Watch: August 2023
• “The New LDS Hymnbook: Changes and Possibilities” (June 2018)
• “‘Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing’ Throughout the Restoration” (March 2019)
• “Spanish Hymns and the Future Hymnbook” (April 2019)
• “Updates on the New Hymnbook” (May 2019)
• “A New Update on the New Hymnbook” (November 2020)

There is also an X account that I follow that is specifically aimed at keeping abreast of news and potential songs: https://x.com/HymnalWatch?t=9xT174qsZza64oP4mLzRCQ&s=09

As far as places to get affordable music, some of the sites I’ve listed before for ward choirs will likely be helpful on that front: http://archive.timesandseasons.org/2020/03/resources-for-ward-choirs/.

I would like to put out some accessible arrangements (for ward choirs with piano and for organ), but we’ll see what I have time to do.

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^[1] Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Thomas S. Monson (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2020), 306.

^[2] Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Thomas S. Monson (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2020), 309.

^[3] Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Thomas S. Monson (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2020), 309.

^[4] https://twitter.com/ldshymnstats/status/1715961547233632305?t=Zh6g7HDZL_WyWTWwb5vatg&s=19.