The Presbyterian Publishing Corporation (PPC) has been finalizing plans for the electronic editions of the new hymnal, Glory to God. Three different electronic editions will be released in the fall of 2013 and spring of 2014.

The online hymnal will be primarily for pastors, musicians, and worship leaders. It will be available in the fall of 2013. Its features include:

• the ability to search the hymnal using different criteria: keyword, text, tune, scripture, meter, theme/topic, hymn number, lectionary Sunday, author/composer, etc. Liturgical materials in Glory to God will also be indexed and searchable.
• images, lyrics, and history of hymns can be downloaded and inserted into a bulletin (when rights allow),
• audio files for hymns (for listening only; not as accompaniments for congregations),
• individual hymn usage, history, and notes can be recorded for users to track congregation’s experience within the online hymnal.
• recommended hymns for lectionary Sundays.

The projection edition will be formatted for easy projection in worship and will be available on a CD/DVD. It will be available in the spring of 2014.

The eBook edition will be for anyone who wants to view and use the hymnal via e-Readers or other mobile devices. This edition will be helpful for pastors who plan worship away from their offices, congregants who want the hymnal with them wherever they go, or members who have particular needs for font size and color, or book weight. The eBook edition will be available in the fall of 2013 and will also include the liturgical materials and resources.

As we get closer to the publication of Glory to God , more details about the electronic editions will be released, including pricing and dates for pre-ordering. Your feedback, ideas, and questions are welcome!

How important is it to say (or sing) the same words as your neighbor?  When your congregation says the Lord's Prayer, does everyone use the same version in the same language?  Does it matter if people in the same community use different turns of phrase?

OR, if you learned a hymn using "Thy" instead of "Your", do you have to relearn the text?  Does it matter if your pew neighbor sings "God's" instead of "His"?

The Presbyterian Committee on Congregational Song (PCOCS) had regular conversation about language and tradition.  Words are important, though they are limited in expressing our deepest intents and understandings.  To guide their process, the PCOCS developed two statements: a Theological Vision Statement and a Statement on Language.  Here are a few excerpts:

Collections of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs give voice to the church’s core beliefs and theological convictions. Their texts are “compact theology,” and the selection of hymns and songs (both the themes that are emphasized and those that are overlooked), the order in which they are presented, and even the ways they are indexed shape the theological thinking and ultimately the faith and practices of the church...

... Scripture uses an abundantly rich array of prose and poetry to tell us about God’s powerful acts of creation, redemption, and final transformation. Much biblical imagery is indeed masculine, but there is also a wide variety of other metaphors that are either feminine or gender-neutral. Most important, behind all biblical narrative lies the deep and prevailing sense that God is the one whose ways and thoughts are as beyond human speech as the heaven is higher than the earth (Isa. 55:8). Our lips need to be cleansed by a burning coal before we speak or sing any word about the holy God (Isa. 6:5).

The framework of salvation history requires a collection of songs that reflects the full extent of the biblical narrative and also the full array of biblical language used for God – even if that leads us to using words and imagery that go beyond our natural comfort.

Given these commitments, the Committee seeks a songbook that is characterized, as a church document formulates it, by “inclusive language with reference to the people of God, and expansive language with reference to God...”

To read more about the guidelines adopted by the PCOCS, visit our website.

To read more about the PC(U.S.A.)'s practices, download either this brochure (published by the Racial Ethnic, and Women's Ministries Division) or this short paper (published by the Office of Theology and Worship).

In addition to hymns, psalms, and spiritual songs, Glory to God will include approximately thirty pages of liturgical material.  This is a note-worthy compromise between the 200 printed pages in 1972's Worshipbook and the 5 pages in the current hymnal.  Ronald P. Byars, liturgical scholar and author of The Sacraments in Biblical Perspective (published by Westminster John Knox Press, 2011),  participated in a conversation last fall about the proposed material.  Here is his brief reflection about the consultation and the new hymnal:

A group of Presbyterians who love worship and have experience studying, planning, leading, teaching, and writing about it gathered in Fort Worth for a three-day conference beginning on Reformation Day (October 31, 2011).  The purpose of the consultation was three-fold: to examine our current practices around the Word and Table, to consider the liturgical renewal in the Presbyterian church, and to review the orders of worship to be published in Glory to God.

The current hymnal (1990) includes an outline of the Service for the Lord’s Day (p. 12).  Glory to God will have full texts for that service and the Sacrament of Baptism, as well as Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Prayer at the Close of Day.

Why include full texts? There are both theological and practical reasons. One is that what we see, hear, and do in worship both shapes and communicates the church’s beliefs. Because worship has the power to form and shape people’s faith, care needs to be taken that what we do and say faithfully represents the faith of the church, as represented in our denomination’s Directory for Worship, which in turn is guided by our Book of Confessions. Scrutinizing the proposed liturgical contents of the hymnal is as important as screening the theology of the hymns and songs we’ll be singing.

Sadly, it’s not unusual for worship to unintentionally embody and project beliefs that either contradict or flat-out ignore the faith that’s being preached from the pulpit or taught in the church; thus, it is helpful for worshipers, as well as ministers, to have in their hands the structure and texts of services prepared specifically for Presbyterian worship. While we have a Book of Common Worship, with many liturgical resources, we will not often find it in the pews. The easy accessibility of these services will encourage congregations and their ministers to use them.