A message from Rev Sarah…

Dear friends,
 
In the last few months, a supplement has been published to the purple hymnbooks, properly titled Church Hymnary, 4th Edition, that was launched for use in churches at the meeting of the Church of Scotland General Assembly last May.  God Welcomes All contains 225 new hymns, many of which have been sourced from churches and hymn writers around the world. 
 
The introduction to God Welcomes All reflects on the power of music in the scriptures and through our lives helping us to connect with God and each other.  Songs and hymns form us in our faith; there really is a sense that what we sing shapes what we believe in a way other media tends not to do.  Snatches of hymns and other songs we learned as children or encountered at notable stages and events in our lives can return to our minds as sources of both comfort and irritation throughout our lives.  Many years ago, while researching a dissertation about spirituality in the Reformed Tradition I realised that among the earliest expressions of ecumenism - different church traditions and denominations engaging with others - came through the sharing of hymns and church music.  Congregations were singing hymns authored by individuals outside and sometimes far beyond their own denomination at a time that they might have been wary of those same traditions’ presence in their community. 
 
All of the content in the new hymn book has been written in the last twenty years.  The content has been ‘road tested’ by the editors and found to be appropriate and welcomed by a range of congregational settings.  It will be interesting to see given the test of time what of the material will be most popular and singable.  When we remember some of the hymn writers of old, Charles Wesley, Isaac Watts, and those who adapted what we receive authored as the Scottish Psalter, some of that work we receive and love while other hymns by those writers never really got off the writing board.  Others were popular for a time before quietly slipping out of use.  By the same token, what we receive from our forebears as much-loved golden oldies, were all new hymns once upon a time that someone probably complained about as being unfamiliar. 
 
We can reflect carefully on how we cope with change and new things in all aspects of our lives.  Continuing the hymnody theme, I remember a colleague many years ago joking with me that a hymn that reflecting the approach of many people he’d encountered across a lifelong ministry in churches is the line from the Victorian hymn writer Anna Laetitia Waring’s In heavenly love abiding, ‘for nothing changes here’.
 
Most people struggle with change whether it’s something that we welcome or resist.  The pace of change in society at times can feel overwhelming and we long to keep something(s) the same.  The familiar can be comforting.  Change is hardest when it is unsought or unchosen. Different people have their own thresholds for what they find acceptable.  We can all strengthen our ability to cope with change by practicing with small things and looking for opportunities where we know we will encounter something unfamiliar.  Learning new hymns and reflecting on their understanding of faith, discipleship and life in general can be a way of doing that.  Who knows, some of the material in the new hymnbook might in time become a favourite!
 
With love and prayers
 
Sarah
The Rev Sarah Moore
Transitional Minister