Of Canons and Hymns

By Daniel Martins During my education at a decidedly non-liturgical Christian liberal arts college in the early 1970s, because I was a music major, I was required to learn the vocabulary associated with the ... Read More...

Singing in Prison

By Ephraim Radner We all have strong views about hymns. My standard is whether they can be remembered in prison, be sung aloud, and have a practical immediacy capable of encouraging those in the cell next do... Read More...

The Friendly Beasts

By Amber Noel Jesus our brother, strong and good Was humbly born in a stable rude, And the friendly beasts around him stood, Jesus our brother, strong and good. “I,” said the donkey, shaggy and brown, “I carried his mother up hill and down. “I carried h... Read More...

O Holy Night: Beyond Sentimentality

By Peter C. Schellhase A few Christmases ago I learned that “O Holy Night,” that Christmas Eve staple, is based on a quite serviceable French carol, “Minuit, Chrétiens,” by Placide Cappeau. But the differenc... Read More...

I Hate That Hymn

By Steve Schlossberg The only thing complained about in church more often than the lousy sermon is the lousy music. Bad preaching we learn to begrudgingly tolerate because we find ourselves without alternative. In our tradition, it is extremely difficult to... Read More...

Finding Hope in My Father’s World

By Mark Michael We sang “This is My Father’s World” at least once every year in the church of my childhood, on the Sunday of the church picnic at the town park. This was about the only hymn we knew that ment... Read More...

Christ the Lily of Humanity

By Mark Clavier There’s an old tradition of finding Easter in nature. This can be seen especially in Christian poetry, perhaps most famously in Venantius Honorius Fortunatus’ 6th-century Easter hymn, “Hail T... Read More...