Wrecking the Content of a Christian Hymn

Chairman, Hymnal Commission

New hymnal hits sour note for some

BY DAVID YONKE

BLADE RELIGION EDITOR


A new 284-song supplement to the official United Methodist Hymnal is striking a sour note with some church leaders for lyrics that refer to God in feminine terms including "Mothering Christ," "Womb of Life," and "strong mother God."

The five songs in The Faith We Sing that describe God as female are being decried as "radical feminist theology," both inaccurate and unacceptable.

"Unfortunately, this publication, with its questionable theology, will be purchased by thousands of unsuspecting United Methodist churches," said Mark Tooley, director of the United Methodist committee of the Institute on Religion and Democracy in Washington.

James V. Heidinger, president and publisher of Good News, a United Methodist newsletter based in Wilmore, Ky., also expressed concern over lyrics in the hymnal that "appear to depart from the historic understanding of God that we have."

Mr. Heidinger and Mr. Tooley both questioned the way the book was published, bypassing the public discussion that shaped the official United Methodist Hymnal before it was published in 1989.

"It almost seems a little bit futile to be debating whether we like the songs or not because the thing is in print," Mr. Heidinger said.

Hoyt Hickman, editor of The Faith We Sing, emphasized that the supplement is not an official denominational publication but is "simply a trade publication of Abingdon Press."

Abingdon Press is a Nashville-based publishing house owned and operated by the United Methodist Church, and one of the covers for the new book features a cross and flame like the one the denomination uses as its symbol.

Many church officials will mistakenly think the new book is an official publication, Mr. Heidinger predicted.

"The dilemma is that when you print it with a cover similar to the hymnal cover and it comes from the [denomination's] publishing house, for all practical purposes it is an official hymnal being used and purchased and put into practice in our local churches," he said.

Mr. Hickman, who also worked on the official 1989 hymnal, said publishing the supplement was "a very different process because we were not going for official approval." The editors conducted surveys, hired 180 consultants, and met with experts from different denominations who had recently worked on hymnals.

The final version of the supplement was approved by two United Methodist agencies, the Board of Discipleship and the Publishing House.

The new hymn book fills a need for diversity among the denomination, Mr. Hickman said.

***

Worship Helps for Methodists


The United Methodist Hymnal

215, "To a Maid Engaged to Joseph": This hymn helps to give non-Catholics an understanding and appreciation of Mary. When told that she is favored and chosen of God, Mary does not celebrate. She is troubled, puzzled, and fearful. As she responds fully to God's call, she provides an example for women and men.

235, "Rock-a-Bye, My Dear Little Boy": This is one of a number of "Mary" hymns that show her role as nurturer, caregiver, and guardian, yet open to the future and whatever "love has destined."

272, "Sing of Mary, Pure and Lowly": This song speaks of Mary, joyful and chosen in her role of mother, but also suffering and full of sadness because of her role — and finally gloriously rewarded.

274, "Woman in the Night": Each of the eight stanzas of this hymn speaks of the role and work of a different woman in relationship to Jesus.

276, "The First One Ever": Each of the three stanzas single out different women for their special roles in Jesus' life: Mary, his mother; the Samaritan woman at the well; and the three women who came to anoint his body in the tomb.

317, "O Sons and Daughters, Let Us Sing": Stanza 2 speaks of the women who came to anoint Jesus' body.


The Faith We Sing

2046, "Womb of Life": This hymn includes feminine images for God and feminine attributes of God — in labor, giving birth, as mother — alongside numerous male images and attributes.

2047, "Bring Many Names": Along with other images for God, stanza two incorporates the image of a "strong mother God, working, planning, ordering, setting things in motion."

2048, "God Weeps": This hymn speaks of the abuse and suffering women face and the hope for change found in Christ.

2101, "Two Fishermen": Stanza three ffirms that Jesus called women (Susanna, Mary, and Magdalene) to be included in his band of followers.

2189, "A Mother Lined a Basket": This hymn tells of three women who, as mothers, had great influence on their children and provided a model for all parents.

2221, "In Unity We Lift Our Song": This hymn includes women as equal partners with men in the congregation of the faithful.

2242, Walk with Me": This hymn includes Mary Magdalene, along with Moses and Peter, among leaders whose lives serve as examples of how God works through us even today.

***

GJ - Christian Worship (WELS) was edited to feminize all the hymns. Funny, but everyone thought that made the Liberal Book of Weirdness so bad. The LBW did not create a feminist creed, but WELS did in CW.

The apostates have already won when they get to ruin a hymnal.

I read a letter from the president of the Unitarian Universalist Association. He pointed out that Unitarians were famous for their hymns in the past. Most of those classic Unitarian hymns are no longer used by the UUA members at all. They are still used in liberal Protestant denominations.

John D. Rockefeller Jr. backed the famous apostate who wrote "God of grace and God of glory," Henry E. Fosdick. Junior built him a church, Riverside in NYC. Recent Lutheran hymnals omitted "God of grace" because it was a song bragging about beating the conservatives. WELS included it.

Case closed.

PS - The new LSB is reputed to be the best collection of Lutheran hymns so far - plenty of them included, better translations, etc. I have not used it enough to argue the matter. My source knows all the hymnals and I trust his judgment.

I am not keen on the fever for changing the liturgy all the time. I have not seen any improvements in 50 years.

Hey, There, Mother Better Hide Your Brother Cause the Report's In

Draft of Proposed ELCA Social Statement on Sexuality Available March 13

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The draft of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's (ELCA) proposed social statement on human sexuality will be available March 13. The Task Force for ELCA Studies on Sexuality met here Jan. 25-26 to complete its work on the draft and give final instructions to its writing team.

The task force received a final report on responses for "Free in Christ to Serve the Neighbor: Lutherans Talk about Human Sexuality" -- part three of the "Journey Together Faithfully" study materials for members of the ELCA -- and the group spent eight sessions reviewing draft material of the social statement in closed, off-the-record sessions.

"When social statements are in the actual process of being written, things are very fluid," said the Rev. Peter Strommen, bishop, ELCA Northeastern Minnesota Synod, Duluth, and task force chair. "This is our last meeting before the draft is released. The task force continues to work very hard, securing participation from the entire group," he said.

***

GJ - The WWII song was, "Hey, there, mister, better hide your sister, cause the fleet's in, the fleet's in."

The position--so to speak--on this issue will converge among the four-letter synods: ELCA, WELS, LCMS. The wisdom of WELS at this moment (F. Bivens, Fuller alumnus) is exactly the same as the LCA position of a few years ago. Progress.

WELS Website Leads with Yancey Quotation

Baptist Phil Yancey, Loved by WELS
Fawning Treatment of Yancey at WELS.net

If I had been sitting in the crowed of followers when Jesus first delivered his Sermon on the Mount, beginning with beatitudes such as, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," and "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth," and "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God," I probably would have strolled down from the mountainside a bit confused. Nothing to be ashamed of. After all Christian author, Philip Yancey, admits as much in his book, "The Jesus I Never Knew."

Yet Yancey unfolds these statements of Jesus with great skill as he continues, and explains them as follows.

Dangled Promises. What Yancey describes as perhaps some kind of sop Jesus threw to the unfortunates. It's as if Jesus were saying, "Well, since you aren't rich, and your health is failing, and your face is wet with tears, I'll toss out a few niche phrases to make you feel better."

Yancey quoted as a Biblical expert in FIC.

Yancey viewed and approved by NPH.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "WELS Website Leads with Yancey Quotation":

One only needs to search for Philip Yancy's name on the WELS website to see how much stock they put in his teachings and how much he has infiltrated our synod. Back in the day, you couldn't so much as pray with anyone outside the synod (they could pray with US however) and here you see only the tip of the iceberg as WELS makes her way down that slippery slope. Wake up, people!!

RM

Who Is Phil Yancey? Why Does WELS Love Him?

Phil Yancey, Baptist Guru for WELS Pastors

I read about Pastor Jeff Gunn (stealth Lutheran mission, Phoenix) loving Baptist Phil Yancey, a favorite of Fuller graduates.

That reminded me of a WELS layman who phoned me a few years ago. His WELS pastor had the congregation studying the Yancey book. The same pastor suggested members join a Baptist church if they moved away and a WELS church was not in the area. Later, he back-pedaled - after I mentioned that in a doctrinal newsletter.

Why Are WELS and Yancey So Cuddly?

I will discuss Pietism more in another post. WELS began as a union denomination and never really left Reformed doctrine behind. Krauth pointed out that Lutheran-Reformed denominations always turn Reformed in time. WELS is a good example. The ELS, LCMS, and ELCA have the same tendencies.

Yancey's claim to notoriety is being raised in an abusive Fundamentalist church, where they were legalistic, stupidly strict, and short on the Gospel Promises. That is the basis for The Jesus I Never Knew. Pietism, with its Reformed doctrine and emphasis on works, tends to throw aside the oppression in a generation or two.

Are you still with me? Those who grew up in the Wisconsin sect can easily identify with a Fundamentalist past: repeat-after-me doctrine, illogical rules, sadistic treatment of the vulnerable. All are a part of the Wisconsin educational system.

The idea that no one is going to heaven except a TBW (True Believing WELS) member is positively Mormonesque. They deny it, but they live it and spout it with regularity.

I love the passage in Tom Sawyer where Twain had strict Presbyterian Sunday School children restricting the numbers of the saved so severely that it was hardly worth the trouble to try the faith.


Scouting and WELS Pietism

1. Stage One: Thou Shalt Not Be a Boy Scout, Lest Thou Be Excommunicated. (Seriously).
   
   
2. Stage Two: Thou Shalt Hide Thy Scouts from Thine Brethren and Sistern (St. Paul, Columbus).
   
   
3. Stage Three: That Was a Dumb Rule Anyway.

Gov. Huckabee's son was a Scout who tortured and hanged a dog at the BSA camp, and later became an Eagle Scout. Perhaps scouting is not so effective in promoting goodness.

Lutherans in Name Only

The LINOs of the Church Growth Movement resonate with Baptist doctrine and worship, not with Lutheran doctrine and worship. There is something worse going on.

I respect traditional Baptists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, even though I do not agree with their doctrine.

The Church Growth people are outwardly Reformed, tending toward the Baptists or the Pentecostals, but they are really their own cult. They mock all worship. They ruin the congregations and denominations where they take over.

The CGM people are man-centered, besotted with secular management theory. Fuller is now in its Unitarian stage, the last one in apostasy. They are not interested in the Christian faith but in a religious big business. Their favorite gurus are prime examples: Robert Schuller and Paul Y. Cho. Both men puffed up false teachers.

Fuller cannot talk religion anymore, so they promote secular management books. They were promoting Peter Drucker's Management by Objective 15-20 years ago. Now all their favorite books are management books. I hope Fuller starts an MBA program. That would be ideal. "I have an MBA from Fuller Seminary, with certificates in tongue-speaking and Project Management.

Just google your pastor's favorite books and you will see where his heart is.

More Unitarian Worship Insights

Worship at First Unitarian

THE ROLE OF THE WORSHIP SERVICE

Our Sunday morning worship service is the one moment in the week in which we gather as a single community. It is often a transformative moment, reminding us of our connections to each other and to all of life. Ours is a diverse community. We come together holding a variety of differing beliefs. And yet, the worship service provides a focal point and regular nurturance for our lives.

Let’s use the metaphor of a living rain forest. Our system of principles and values for living is continuously growing and evolving as the seeds of new concepts and relationships are planted. The system needs sustenance and sometimes, under strain, may wither and die.

As a rain forest needs many diverse elements to survive--sun, rain, wind, soil, air, seeds--so it is with the spiritual life of the individual. In order for the system to thrive and continuously evolve, it must be regularly reaffirmed, challenged, reflected upon, have the seeds of new concepts planted, and old ideas and values pruned. Thus does the system for living evolve over time to support life.

WHAT HAPPENS IN OUR WORSHIP SERVICES

Although Unitarian worship services tend to be less liturgical and ritual-based than those in many traditional churches, our services do contain a number of common elements which move the gathered community through an hour-long experience of centering, reflecting and returning. These common elements are

Chalice Lighting

The flaming chalice is the most widely used Unitarian Universalist symbol. Its lighting is a signal to convene the service, a calling together and focusing of attention, invoking our readiness to worship.

Welcome and Greeting

At this point, we actively remind ourselves that we are truly a religious community, not simply a collection of individuals gathered in one place at the same time, by welcoming those around us to our communal endeavour.

Hymns

Singing is a joyous form of self-expression. Blending our voices together reminds us that we are not alone. We sing to awaken our spiritual life and energy.

Call to Worship and Unison Affirmation

This is the formal call to collective worship followed by the congregation’s recitation of a poetic statement of the core elements of our liberal religion:

Love is our doctrine,
the quest for truth is our sacrament,
and service is our prayer.
To dwell together in peace,
to seek knowledge in freedom,
to serve life,
to the end that all souls shall grow
into harmony with the divine,
thus do we covenant with each other
and with all.

Story
Our stories are for everyone. They allow children and the whole congregation to explore the morning's message from another point of view. After the story, the adults sing to the children as they leave for further exploration in their own style in our Relgious Education Program

Meditation
With music, words, silence and the opportunity to light a candle, congregants participate in a period of reflection and prayer.

Testimony

Our religion recognizes “the priesthood of all believers.” We are called to minister to one another. Part of this ministry, as well as an element of personal spiritual growth, involves naming for the congregation: What brought me here? What keeps me here? What religious or spiritual issue am I wrestling with at this point in my life?

Sermon

The sermon is usually the intellectual centrepiece of the service, and sometimes the emotional one as well. For many Unitarians, it helps to establish the Sunday service as “the still point of the turning world” (T.S. Eliot). At its best, the sermon is the core element in the transformative experience that the service is creating.

Offertory

All that our congregation is and all that it has, we bring to it. The first act of transformation is the giving of ourselves. This is our opportunity to turn ideals into action. We invite you to give generously.


Closing Words

A reminder to live the coming days in the spirit of Unitarianism, in the search for truth, and with a commitment to service and justice.

WE CELEBRATE COMMUNIONS

For Unitarians, communion is not about saving ourselves from a sinful human nature, not about making us exceptions to the laws of nature, and not about achieving eternal life among the angels. The word stems from the Latin for mutual participation, and for us it is about the communal celebration of life. We conduct communion services four times a year.

Water Communion (first Sunday after Labour Day)

Each congregant brings water from near or far to mingle with the water brought by others. This marks the end of summer and our coming together again as one religious community.

Bread Communion (Thanksgiving Sunday)

This autumn service marks our reliance on the good earth and upon the past. We give thanks for the blessings of the harvest and of our own unique history.


Fire Communion (last Sunday in December)

Life is the greatest gift; it offers the opportunity for connection and attachment but also the potential for loss. At the end of the year, each congregant burns a piece of paper containing a brief description of something he or she most wishes to leave behind and lights a candle for one new hope for the coming year.

Flower Communion (second Sunday in June)

Congregants bring flowers which are commingled and then redistributed, in celebration of the extravagant variety and beauty of life .

OUR COPPER CHALICE AND GLOBE

At the heart of life itself is energy, fire. We recognize that fire as the light of truth, the warmth of love, the heat of passion, the creative spark that bears many names: God or Goddess, Truth, Love, Spirit of Life, Ground of Being, First Cause. For Unitarian Universalists, that flame represents the essence of life itself. And so, at First Unitarian, it rests at the core of our copper globe.

The globe represents the universality of our Universalist heritage and the unity of our Unitarian heritage — the oneness of all people, the earth, the universe. We call it “the interdependent web of all existence, of which we are a part.”

The globe and the flame are at the centre of our worship service every Sunday. We have broken open the globe, to reveal the spark of life within. One half rests on the wall above to remind us that all life is interdependent. The other half forms our chalice, the cup which holds the flame that is the essence of every human soul. The globe and the flame rest among us as we worship together.

***

GJ - I think it is worthwhile to see where the mockery of traditional worship ends. These people are serious about what they do and honest about what they do not believe. What should grind our gears is the constant mocking of Lutheran worship by so-called Lutheran pastors who line their bookshelves with management theory and Baptist books from Fuller Seminary's own bookstore. The revenue from Fuller's bookstore is probably larger than the GNP of most developing nations.

Water Communion

Coming to a church growth congregation near you...

On Wednesday, September 19, Unitarian Universalist students at the seminary led a "water communion" chapel. In Unitarian churches, water communion is a welcome service that invites members of the congregation to bring water from the places they have been. The water is offered into a common vessel as a sign of the many gifts brought together by the congregation.

***

GJ - Wait, there's more.

***

Ritual Performance Class

The Ritual Performance and Criticsm (sic) class prepared the chapel for Tuesday, November 13 based on a reading from II Thessalonians 2. The text speaks to the community in Thessalonica expecting the immanent "day of the Lord" a warning not to be deceived or shaken by others. The chapel group used their learnings in our ritual class to imagine many new sounds and actions to embody the feelings of alarm and breaking trust, as well as the comfort that Paul promises in every good work and word.

***

GJ - Don't miss the link to the Dalai Lama, on the Union Seminary, New York, blog page.

Does anyone wonder why Union's nickname is The Devil's Playground?

Old YDS joke - A Union Seminary graduate was given a Bible as a prize when he graduated. He began to page through it and became increasingly excited, "Hey, this throws a lot of light on what we've been studying the last three years!"

The Sausage Factory, Mequon, Wisconsin

The Sausage Factory, Mequon,
where Ichabod was held prisoner
for several months.
It looks like the Wartburg
but smells like tiger meat.

His Holiness, the ELCA Presiding Bishop Blesses Yale with His Presence

Yale Divinity School, Where Ichabod Studied for an STM

Lutheran Presiding Bishop Visits New Haven, Ridgefield Feb. 8-9

The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) will speak at events in New Haven and Ridgefield Feb. 8 and 9. Presiding Bishop was recently featured in the Dec. 23 CBS-TV broadcast, "In God's Name," which included prominent international church leaders. In addition to his role as ELCA presiding bishop, Hanson is president of the Lutheran World Federation, based in Geneva, which represents 66 million Lutherans worldwide.


The Connecticut events at are free and open to the public. They are:

+ Friday, February 8, 7:30 p.m., Hanson will deliver the keynote address
at the 30th annual "Lutherans in Diaspora" Conference at Yale Divinity
School, New Haven, Conn. The conference is an annual gathering of
Lutheran students enrolled at Harvard Divinity School, Princeton
Theological Seminary, Union Theological Seminary and Yale Divinity
School. Bishop Hanson will comment on the first 25 years of the ELCA
and his vision for its future. A reception will follow.