Singing the Journey
Sermon preached by Reverend Carolyn Patierno
November 13, 2005

I know that you know that singing is very important to me.  Specifically, that singing together in worship is very important to me.  As the root meaning of the word “worship” is that to which we assign worth, singing makes more clear than perhaps any other element of our liturgy what we hold as essential.  What we hold as essential evolves over time and as it does, so do the songs that reflect the tradition.

Published in 1964, three years after the Unitarians and Universalists consolidated, the preface of Hymns for the Celebration of Life stated the following:

Religion is a present reality:  it is also an inheritance from the past.  Hymns for the Celebration of Life is edited in the conviction that a vital faith must be a singing faith and that each generation needs to express itself freshly in its own idiom through song and the spoken word.  Hence, to a solid core of songs and readings that have proved to have enduring significance have been added new materials – things old rediscovered, others newly fashioned.

The editors of that volume had no way to know what lay just ahead of the publication date of that volume.  Although that hymnal was used for just short of 30 years, its publication date of 1964 was on the crest of dramatic social change in this country.  And while many hymns are transient, many others speak to a particular people living at a particular time.  “A present reality and an inheritance from the past.”

And so when our present hymnal, Singing the Living Tradition, was published in 1993, there was great excitement.  It had been a long time since new works were introduced to our congregations’ worship lives and life had indeed changed in the interim.  It was a new generation’s turn “to express itself freshly in its own idiom.” 

The preface of Singing the Living Tradition began with these words,

We remember the words of our predecessors: “Religion is a present reality; it is also an inheritance.”  Or to use a more current expression, a living faith must have both roots and wings.  A hymnbook is one place where we find both.  

And so we did and do indeed find in our current hymnal the roots and wings to which the writers refer.  This congregation played a role in this hymnal’s development as my predecessor and your former minister, Ellen Johnson Fay, was a member of the Hymnbook Resources Commission.  This commission set out, in their own words, to “express the center and edges of our living tradition” guided by our principles and sources in the selection process.

Singing the Living Tradition has served us well these 12 years since its publication.  From it we have received the gift of a number of songs that have enriched our corporate life and our individual journeys.  Case in point, everyone here this morning no doubt has a favorite hymn (although I’ve been informed that I preface the singing of any number of hymns with, “This is my favorite hymn.”)  But the denomination has adopted "Spirit of Life" as a kind of unofficial anthem. 

But then the UUA elected a president who loves to sing, who understands the vital role of singing in worship.  In his foreword to Singing the Journey, President Bill Sinkford wrote, 

Singing helps our very “heady” faith find its loving heart.  Singing in community brings us together and lets us know that we can raise a clear and unified voice.  And we know that a congregation that loves to sing is almost always a vital and strong religious community.

I believe that Bill Sinkford has proven himself to be an effective, compassionate and smart leader.  He has taken on many issues both within our movement and beyond upon which he is building a proud legacy.  However, in my opinion, among the most visionary was his feeling that we needed new music in our congregations to reflect a shift in our focus; a deepening of our welcome; and a heightened radiance to our worship style.  The movement as a whole is indebted to his commitment to music that enhances and expresses our shared faith and many beliefs.

In his forward President Sinkford went on to say that, “Our songs let us know that we are one religious people despite the many spiritual paths we follow.”  The committee that edited this new collection, like commissions before them, used our principles and sources to guide them.  And so, not surprisingly, the selection is wide and varied – and very exciting. 

What I find particularly interesting about this hymnal is that not all of the hymns are ones that we will be singing from beginning to end together as a congregation.  "Open the Window" and "Morning Has Come" are examples of what I mean and there are many more like these two.  In addition, there are songs from different genres of hymnody such as Taize, a style created by monks in France that use repetition and harmony to create a method of singing meditation.  There are many hymns whose lyrics are in languages other than English including Spanish, Hungarian, Zulu, French, Latin, Arabic, Hebrew, and Italian.   All of these features put Kit in a particularly wonderful position to serve as the music director of New London’s interfaith service this year.   Several of the selections he chose came from Singing the Journey. 

This morning, Kit and I endeavored to bring you but a small sample of the hymns included in this hymnal.  I have attended two workshops on this hymnal, and Kit attended the annual conference of the UU Musicians Network.  We’ve spent time individually and together sifting through and getting excited by these songs.   I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing a little bit about the ones we chose to share with you this morning and I especially hope that you feel encouraged by them, although I do understand that for some, learning new music causes a little consternation.  All the editors of all three of these hymnals address that tension.  Those who edited Hymns for the Celebration of Life put it this way:

In choosing tunes we have been guided by the belief that a vital religion calls for fresh, as well as for familiar, musical expression, including tunes which, if unfamiliar, deserve to be learned.   …  [W]e hope that the initial enthusiasm of a few, matched by the open-mindedness of the many, will lead to full use of this collection in that venturesome attitude which allows the new to become familiar.

I trust this congregation’s open-mindedness and enthusiasm both.  Through these it is my belief that our worship life will be enriched by this adventuresome music.  The feeling of adventure in the music will mirror the feeling of adventure that is currently filling our sails at All Souls.

At their best, a UU hymnal presents, “a wide gamut of life’s varied experience, since no part of life may be excluded from our religious concern.” So said the editors of Hymns for the Celebration of Life.  As ours is a religion that recognizes the sacred in so many expressions of life, so must the songs we sing reflect this recognition.  Hymns that capture the essence of joy, sorrow, gratitude, the quest for justice, community, and love are all there in both Singing the Living Tradition and Singing the Journey.   We are fortunate to have this span of resources at our fingertips.

For through joining our voices in this place, we join also join our hearts.  That joining of hearts is palpable on Sunday mornings here at All Souls.  It is the reason why that on some Sundays, I want to speak the words to send us forth just after we sing the opening hymn, so transcendent is that experience of song.  I confess that I fear that it could only be down hill from there.  Me, of little faith, I suppose.  But it was a morning such as that that inspired this service.  We’re fortunate to have Kit and the beautiful choir to help make it happen and all of you who are willing to learn along with us and together.

So, “come, sing a song with me for through song we’ll find hope when hope is hard to find.  Our song will be a song of love that will bring even a rose in the wintertime.

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