Dear Friends

The Hymnal 1982

Cross Roads
January 8, 1986

Dear Friends,

For decades now The Hymnal 1940 has been the one against which other denominational hymnals have been measured. It achieved an unparalleled level of quality; it became the new standard of excellence.

The Hymnal has been a great gift to the Episcopal Church and to the wider Church. It has enabled us to sing God’s praises together both in words artistically and theologically sounds and to music that stirs our souls and expresses our inmost longings.

The heritage of The Hymnal 1940 now lives on in The Hymnal 1982. The same standard of excellence, the same sound theology, the same high quality of music that permeated The Hymnal 1940 continues on in The Hymnal 1982.

In fact, much of the music is the same. Roughly sixty percent of the hymns in the old hymnal are in the new hymnal. Of the 295 that we have sung at the Chapel of the Cross at least once in the last six years, 265 are in The Hymnal 1982. Of the ones omitted, we have only sung four as many as four or five times in the last six years.

In addition to that solid core of hymns, The Hymnal 1982 offers a new variety of carefully chosen hymns (including well-known hymns unavailable to us before) and perhaps more importantly, a broader spectrum of service music appropriate to the various services of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer.

This Sunday we will begin using The Hymnal 1982 (the same day it is dedicated at the Washington Cathedral). Let us give thanks to God both for the wonderful gift of The Hymnal 1940 and for the successor it has spawned. May The Hymnal 1982 serve us as long and as well as its predecessor. – Stephen