A congregation of the United Church of Canada
We have been doing it for twelve years. Even during the pandemic we managed to find ways to keep doing it. Some folks tell me that it’s their favourite worship service of the whole year. And it’s happening this Sunday. It, is Hymn Sing Sunday – and we need your help.
On Hymn Sing Sunday we literally randomly draw the names of hymns out of a basket and the scramble begins. Our techies in the sound booth scramble to locate the lyrics and put them on the screens, while our musician, Kristine, scrambles to find it in the hymn book and instantly put it under her fingers. I just have to lead the singing of it. My scrambling happens in the sermon time, when instead of a pre-written sermon I make it up on the spot, using only the hymn lyrics and theological themes as my ‘text’. I pull a hymn, y’all sing a verse or two, while I madly scribble down a few thoughts to preach on. It’s amazing that every year the order in which the hymns come out of the basket just seems to ‘work’ – and sometimes there are even strong themes that emerge. I’m sure part of the fun is the ‘organized chaos’ of the scrambling, and that sense that it’s an adventure. And, of course, there’s the joy of singing our favourite hymns that move our spirits.
A colleague of mine attended the Ed Sheeran concert in Toronto last Sunday. He was agog at the spirit in the air as 50,000 people enthusiastically sang songs together at the top of their lungs. They all knew the words, because that music is the soundtrack of their lives. I remarked that they don’t go to the concert to ‘learn’ the songs – they go to celebrate their joy in sharing in the songs – kinda like us on Hymn Sing Sunday. Maybe someday we’ll do an entirely ‘secular music’ Sunday, using songs that aren’t necessarily religious but have spiritual themes? That would be fun!
Unlike Ed, we’ll have slightly fewer than 50,000 in worship on Sunday, and I suspect we’ll be slightly less groovy, but I know there will be some joyous sharing in singing. Some churches do have ‘rock concert’ style music. We dabble in some praise songs – and yes, you’re welcome to put those in the basket too. Everyone’s heart-music is different.
Our hymns are really important to us, but I’m not sure they’re the soundtrack of our lives. Do you listen to many hymns when you’re not at church? Probably not. But the songs have been with many of us for a very long time, so they resonate and resound as heart-music. That’s why it’s one of the most popular services of the year at Faith.
However, none of this happens if people – you! – don’t write down the names of their favourite hymns on the little slips of paper, and put them in the basket. And for those who join us online, you can send your hymn requests to Matthew, our office admin, in the church office (office@faithunited.ca) by this Friday and he’ll get them onto the paper slips and into the basket.
I hope you’ll join us for Hymn Sing Sunday on June 25th, either in-person or via our YouTube livestream. And yes, you’re welcome to bring 49,999 friends!