It’s been a while since I put out an update on “Hymns—for Home and Church”: The New Latter-day Saint Hymnbook, and I have some mixed feelings on the latest updates.

Updates on Hymnal Size and Timing

The key piece of information is that we have an update on the size and timing of release. They have said it will contain about 375 songs, rather than the previously announced 500–550 songs. This is a big disappointment to me. The current children’s songbook has 268 songs, and the current hymnal has 341 songs. In total, that’s 609 songs in the current set, so we’re looking at a net loss of 234 songs from our current corpus of music (a 38% decrease). And that’s not counting hymns being edged out by new additions to the collection. So far, we have 48 songs that have been released as new additions, meaning that if the new hymnbook was released only with those additions, we’d still be losing about 54% of the songs currently included in the English hymnbook and Children’s Songbook. And we’re likely to see more hymns added. So, when Elder Dale Renlund said that “Your favorite hymn may not be included,” it was a bit of an understatement. Most likely, a significant number of songs and hymns you know and love will be cut.^[1]

As far as timing goes, they are now saying that the hymnbook will be published in 2027. Much like the Salt Lake Temple renovations, this represents a slipage of timeline, since the previous announcements indicated 2026. While I’m always a fan of taking the time something needs in order to be done well rather than releasing an inferior product, the combined news of timing changes and size changes does feel like a case of overpromising and underdelivering on the part of decision makers.

One area for hope, however, is that there is the potential for additional digital releases outside of the core hymnal. While most of the hymns in the current hymnal are only going to be available when you “keep your current hymnbook, and continue to enjoy your old favorites at home,” according to Dale G. Renlund, Steven Schank, chair of the hymnbook committee (and author/composer of “I Will Walk with Jesus”) noted that “The beauty of this hymnbook coming at a time in the history of the world when it is, is we’ve always had only a print hymnbook in the past, but we live in a digital age, which affords us some options.” He went on to say that

We have some options online to extend the hymnbook. So, the decision has been made by the First Presidency to include 375, about, hymns in the print book but then to allow for an open canon online, where we can over time add additional hymns that members can use. This might include patriotic music, which would be too cumbersome to include in a worldwide hymnbook for all of the languages, but it would include additional hymns on every topic that could grow over time and could allow people to sing at home and at church. Even the ones that are online are part of the hymnbook and can be programmed in sacrament meeting and other general church meetings.^[2]

While the new hymnal represents a huge loss of our current group of hymns and children’s songs, there are options for an open canon in hymnody (though the logistics of using digital-only options in sacrament meetings might be cumbersome without resorting to projectors).

 

The New Hymns

That being said, I am happy with many of the new additions. There is a lot to appreciate and be grateful for. It should be no surprise that I have been expecting “Placentero nos es trabajar” to be added to the hymnal. (In fact, when I went to the Mormon History Association conference a couple weeks ago, I discovered that my posts on that hymn are what I’m apparently best known for.) Thus, I was excited to see it included in the latest batch as  “Oh, How Great Is Our Joy”. I’ve also loved the inclusion of early American hymns (like “Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling” “His Voice as the Sound,” “My Shepherd Will Supply My Need,” and “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing”). The recent inclusion of African-American songs like “I’m Gonna Live So God Can Use Me,” “This Little Light of Mine,” and “Were You There?” is fantastic and I’m excited to use them.

 

Representation

In another example of overpromising and underdelivering, the hymns and children’s songs in the 48 new hymns are overwhelmingly Anglo-American, especially Utahn. For example, according to my count, out of the 48 texts, 20 were written by Utahns (~41.7%),^[3] 13 by other Americans (~27%), 8 by the English (~16.7%), and 7 by people from other countries (~14.5%). Of those other countries, only one hymn text was not from northern or western Europe (Mexico).

If you look closer at the hymns that—as far as I’m aware—have not been published in hymnals before, it gets even more dramatic. There are 26 new texts and 25 new tunes. Of those contributions, ~77% of new texts were by Utahns, and 84% of new tunes were composed by Utahns. The only countries represented outside of the United States in these new hymns are England and the Netherlands, with one hymn each.

This is incredibly disproportionate when compared to the statistics that the Church has given for membership. Utah only represents 12.6% of total membership, the United States 39.6%, and Europe 2.9%. Regions like South America (25.1%), Oceania (3.5%), Africa (5.3%), and Asia (7.5%) remain completely unrepresented in the repertoire of hymns, despite representing 41.4% of total Church membership. I understand that there are several complicating factors here—the merit of pieces submitted, differences in access to music training and composing tools, looking at what members feel are appropriate to sing after decades of being raised on a diet of North American and British hymns, the influences of the previous points on blind hymn testing by Church members, etc. But given the extent of the number of hymns submitted, this still feels extremely disproportionately skewed towards Utah. If we’re looking for representation of a worldwide church in the origin of the hymns being published, we’re not doing very well.

Again, though I have my concerns about the direction things have gone, I love the songs that have been chosen and look forward to enjoying them in our worship services.

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Footnotes

^[1] Mary Richards and Joel Randall, “Episode 243: The Church’s Hymnbook Committee chair, Steve Schank, on new hymns and joyful singing,” Church News, June 3, 2025. https://www.thechurchnews.com/podcast/2025/06/03/episode-243-new-hymnbook-update-steve-schank-elder-renlund/. Eleven New Hymns Now Available in ‘Hymns—For Home and Church’ Newsroom, June 12, 2025, https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/eleven-new-hymns-now-available-in-hymns-for-home-and-church.

^[2] Mary Richards and Joel Randall, “Episode 243: The Church’s Hymnbook Committee chair, Steve Schank, on new hymns and joyful singing,” Church News, June 3, 2025. https://www.thechurchnews.com/podcast/2025/06/03/episode-243-new-hymnbook-update-steve-schank-elder-renlund.

^[3]  For sake of simplicity, I’m counting Utahns as anyone who lived their adult lives in Utah, though there is some wiggle room between who counts as a Utahn and who counts as “other Americans.”