Also from the Tablet, , the results of a survey of readers’ favorite hymns. (In case you’re not familiar with it, the Tablet is the UK’s premier Roman Catholic newspaper). And here’s a discussion of the choices

If old-stagers from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (and even from the seventeenth century in the case of My song is love unknown) are holding their own in the hymnological hit parade, what seem to be disappearing are many of the once popular hymns and songs from the mid-twentieth century. Sydney Carter, who died earlier this year, would have found his way into every top 20 list not so long ago with Lord of the Dance and One more step. Perhaps the tide is turning against these and other products of the 1960s folksong revival. Hymns from the same era written by liberal Protestants such as Brian Wren and Fred Kaan have never really achieved mass popularity, perhaps being too worthy and theologically challenging.

While contemporary writers are still producing hymns, Churches are still producing traditional hymn-books in defiance of the widespread trend towards overhead displays, specially printed orders of service and disposable and one-off liturgies. My own denomination, the Church of Scotland, is bringing out a new hymn-book later this year. It will be the fourth edition of the Church Hymnary to appear in a little over a century and will include more than 650 items, including much from the contemporary world Church, especially from Africa, Asia and Latin America.

On a similar note (hah), the latest issue of Crisis contains an interesting article on how Oregon Catholic Press, the premier “worship aid” producer for Catholics in the US, has suddenly begun promoting Latin chant, and rather aggressively too. The authors of the article are pleasantly surprised by the move, but worry, and justifiably so, that chant might be understood as one more choice of song style to cram into a Mass – you know, the opening hymn is Gather Us In, most of the Mass parts are Mass of Creation, there’s one Latin chant thrown in at communion, and we sing Let There Be Peace on Earth for recessional, not understanding the real role and power of chant in liturgy, traditionally – which is to serve as a musical way to bind the entire act of worship together on a single note, as it were, revealing its heart as a single act of prayer by God’s people. (Pardon me for my poor explanations in this rushed entry while Dragon Tales with those idiotic dragons is droning in the background. If you want to understand what I mean, consider the effect of an Eastern Rite or Orthodox liturgy.)