Voices Raised in Song

It has faded now, the small scar acquired when a shingle, tossed by my brother, sailed down and caught the side of my forehead. I was about six years old. We were one of several families pulling together to build a congregation in Simi Valley, California.

And though the details of that day are faint (though the culprit is not), I remember the childlike excitement of feeling a part of something big in the making.

A similar excitement stirs now. Something big is happening.

After twenty-eight years, Hymns of the Saints is being updated to incorporate wonderful new songs. It will include, as best as possible, the languages, cultures, and understandings of a global church. An abundance of participation is blessing the songbook’s creation.

The “tangibles” are hard to see, dovetailing like a sanctuary’s carefully cut framework or foundation. Selections from more than 1,100 participants are solid and artistically fashioned. Many voices are raising the roof on a new house, so to speak, for the collection of Community of Christ songs.

For the first time, songs from members around the world are being collected. Church leaders with recorders went to multiple countries to capture what non-English-speaking brothers and sisters sing. With the Internet, those files were transferred to International Headquarters for consideration. Members in Africa, Bolivia, China, French Polynesia, Honduras, India, Japan, Nepal, Peru, Philippines, and Russia submitted songs that we hope to share cross-culturally.

You are invited to hear samples of these possibilities and to learn more about the hymnal project.

To date, more than 2,500 selections are in the consideration pool because of the outpouring of creativity, participation, and passion for this endeavor. The project continues to need your help. If you are interested in organizing a group to help sing through, review, and provide feedback on new hymn texts, please email Lauren Hall.

Forty years ago, as a child looking up from the dust of a construction site in suburban Los Angeles, I could not have imagined being a part of a global church community that built on joy, hope, love, and the dream of peace with justice. But I have a scar to remind me that I belong to something big, and much is yet to be done.

—Lauren Hall reporting, July 2009