- Clara on Hymns Officially Rejected: “I submitted a hymn to the Church Music Festival a few years ago, and it ended up being selected. It is now available on the Church website, and my bishop talked about printing it out and including it with the other new hymns. I think it would be great for stakes to do that for other hymns online, especially if a member of the stake wrote it.” May 21, 14:59
- on Hymns Officially Rejected: “Since the authors whose submissions weren’t selected own all rights, there are still things they can do with their songs. They can perform the song at church as a special musical number or with a ward or stake choir, submit it to publishers of church music, self-publish it, share it online, or record it and share the performance on YouTube or streaming sites. Plus the church music submission contest is still open every year. As for the digital collections, I suspect another likely use case will be holiday songs that don’t make it into the general hymnbook. For the English or U.S. digital supplement, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the pioneer songs end up there.” May 21, 14:41
- on Hymns Officially Rejected: “Dirk, I think you’re spot on. So far, the committee has used language that leaves either option open to them – the hymns they’ve released may or may not end up in the physical hymnbook, while any that are not chosen out of them will be part of the digital hymnal.” May 21, 11:14
- on Hymns Officially Rejected: “DaveW, I think it will be more than 100 that we lose. The 375 includes selections from the children’s songbook (currently 268 songs), hymns (currently 341 songs), and newly added songs (72 to 100). That means we’ll be losing over 300 songs from the combined set in the current hymnal and children’s songbook, about half of what’s in them on average.” May 21, 11:11
- on Hymns Officially Rejected: “Are all of the songs being released digitally actually going to appear in the new hymnal? Releasing them in batches of a dozen or so every few months feels more like focus-grouping them to see which ones get more use — and comments — than an actual preview of the new hymnal. Maybe some of them (most of them?) won’t make the printed volume after all but will be part of the digital supplement(s) that everyone will have access to.” May 21, 11:09
- on Hymns Officially Rejected: “The statement that the new book will have about 50 of the submitted hymns is interesting, because by my count, 42 of the 72 hymns that have already been released are “new”. With two more batches of hymns still to be released before the full hymnal comes out (I’ve heard from a source that would be in a position to know) I would expect to pass 50 “new” hymns before the full book is even published. The difference may be from the categorization. I’m counting anything within the last 25 years or so as “new”. I know someone who wrote one of the new hymns, but it was submitted to the Church 15 or 20 years ago, prior to this project. Perhaps the church isn’t including it as one of the 17,000 submitted. Having a book with 375 hymns and then “more” hymns available digitally is interesting. Will anyone really use the digital hymns? Or will this just be patriotic songs or other niche use cases? (I can’t think of any other cases, but maybe someone else can.) I’m very curious to see just how many songs from the current hymnal we lose (100+?) and which ones they are.” May 21, 09:45
- on Hymns Officially Rejected: “I’m not a music person myself (although I was raised in a music family, so I’m kind of familiar with the culture), so I was surprised when it seemed like every other person in my LDS spaces had submitted a hymn. That was the point when I realized that the submitters had NYC publisher slush pile-level odds of success.” May 21, 09:18
- on Phoning it in: How Did You Participate in Church (Or What Did Church Lead You to Think About) Yesterday, 5/17?: “RLD, I know this is off topic, but I want to know more about the Tornado Warning, and why the “Gym” was where everyone went. And did everyone go? How did they know where to go and what to do? I’ve never in my lifetime seen a Tornado drill at church, and cannot imagine the pandemonium that would result. (Actually, my personal bet is that everyone would just stay put on the theory that “Got will protect His Church” and the local habit: “Tornado? Let’s go outside and watch!”) My experience as a midwesterner is that a large room with a relatively unsupported roof is not a good choice for sheltering in case of Tornado… as I find myself thinking about your situation i’d have thought hallways, bathrooms, materials center, font room might be better choices. And now you’ve got me thinking about where would we go in our own (member-built late 1950s era) building if a tornado warning went off during Sacrament meeting… or worse, second hour. (Holy shoot! I can’t imagine the chaos in our narrow hallways where people are trying to reunite with family members before sheltering!) You would think after events in Michigan last fall there would have been more effort toward creating and sharing emergency plans, but I’ve seen nothing of the sort here. To the back channel… can we have a post or conversation about this?” May 21, 07:25
- on Ex-Member Anecdotes and Motivated Memories: “@James: Good point. Culture where I am at is very different than everywhere else. I am in the mormon corridor where the culture is completely different away from here. I lived in Utah for a while when young and that was even a weirder culture for me. I fit better with a CA, HI or small branch in MI church culture/vibe…more chill. The author of the book mentioned above spoke about the culture needing to change and I agree. As you point out, depending where you experience the church and its culture, it can be a positive or negative experience based on the experiencer. But there is a culture present wherever you church at. I would love to move out of my current church culture into a chill one. I dont “fit” in my current ward culture. I think members that leave are focusing too much on the culture and not the gospel and they tend to not know the difference. For example…when some leave they feel a sense of relief. A relief from being burdened by the busy church life can be one such relief they experience which is a very common one. IMO, you dont have to leave to feel that, you just have to adjust your church experience to fit your current situation. Slow down, say no, take a step back vs leave the church because the 110% all the time culture is something I cant keep up with anymore. 90% of the meetings I go to in my ward/culture someone is pounding the “do more” pulpit. Add to that the new current “Jesus is coming soon” culture we are re-experiencing as a church and some members are whipped into a frenzy of “do more” culture. This is culture, not the church. Local leaders pet projects are culture, not the church. My stake is trying their best to bring home teaching back. The local culture cant handle the fact that most do not want to be visited and they take that as a failed program. They want us back in the home every month because not wanting to be visited is not an option. Culture. The temple pres that speaks in stake conference tells the members to “double their efforts” in temple attendance. The mission pres in that same stake conference is telling the members to double efforts in missionary work. Culture, not church. The church is overworking me….I am out! No, dont do it all, do what you can and stop chasing the checklist and to-do’s. Now, if a member left because a local leader “offended” them, which is a real thing and unfortunately happens all the time, and that x-member says the “church” was the offender, then yes I agree about the perception being off. The church did no such thing, the local leader is not the “church” nor be considered as such. Hope I am making sense. Think Mountain Meadows. The church did not make that happen, the local culture did. Most blame the church. Culture is a very real thing and the church gets most the crap about that bad culture when IMO it should be local leaders and members getting the crap for it.” May 21, 02:58
