Hymn book of the United Methodist Church

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The hymn book of the Evangelical Methodist Church from 2002 is the hymn book of the Evangelical Methodist Church for the German-speaking area. According to Hartmut Handt's statements , it was also taken into account by hymnologists in ecumenism , and according to Handt, some hymnologists consider it the best German-language hymnbook currently in use. It was published jointly by the Central Conference Germany, the Annual Conference Switzerland / France and the Annual Conference Austria of the Evangelical Methodist Church.

In addition to 681 songs, it contains numerous words for reflection and full-page images by mostly contemporary European and African artists in black and white art forms such as pencil drawings, linocuts , woodcuts and etchings . This included examples of non-European Christian art in the design of the hymn book.

Disposition

The division, which is unusual for the German-speaking area, essentially corresponds to that of the United Methodist Hymnal of the US section of the Evangelical Methodist Church. As there and in most of the rest of the Methodist hymnbooks, the first song is Charles Wesley's My Mouth Sing a Thousand Times to the Glory of the Lord of the World .

The breakdown roughly follows the Apostles' Creed :

  • The praise of the Triune God including songs about creation and the seasons
  • The way of Jesus Christ with songs for the church year from Advent to Ascension
  • The power of the Holy Spirit with songs for Pentecost, repentance, faith, discipleship, prayer and trust, comfort and hope
  • The life of the church with songs about the course of the worship service, baptism, the Lord's Supper, charity, peace and justice and the day with God
  • The new world of God with songs about death, eternal life, the second coming of Christ

Then follow the songs

  • Biblical readings
  • Prayers
  • Confessions of the United Methodist Church
  • Last Supper liturgies, including one developed for this hymn book

The register part includes

  • Authors' biographies
  • Directory of the artists' pictures and biographies
  • Directory of words for reflection
  • Alphabetical list of songs

Songs

The hymnal has a four-part choral setting for practically all songs. Guitar chords including capos are given for almost all songs .

The songs span a wide variety of musical styles. In addition to classical chants and hymns , there are songs from the charismatic movement, liturgical chants from the old church, new spiritual songs , canons and singsong. The international and cultural spectrum is just as broad: there are Negro Spirituals and English hymns, as well as songs from Latin America, Black Africa and China. 44 songs have lyrics in several languages.

The liturgical chants range from the Gloria of the early church liturgy of the 3rd century, the Orthodox Trisagion , Gregorian antiphons , the Lord's Prayer sung by Rimski-Korsakoff , Taizé songs, Spanish and English songs to South African alternating chants.

The 23 songs under the title Peace and Justice , which is based on the social creed of the Evangelical Methodist Church , are all less than fifty years old.

In addition to numerous Methodist songs by Charles Wesley and Ernst Gebhardt, there are also many traditional German songs. Paul Gerhardt , Joachim Neander , Gerhard Tersteegen and Nikolaus von Zinzendorf are just as often represented as in the Evangelical Church Hymns , Martin Luther not quite as often. Dieter Trautwein , Arno Pötzsch and Lothar Zenetti are particularly well represented among the newer authors .

The ecumenical versions of some songs were a certain problem, as they each have different lyrics in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, so you had to choose one.

Accompanying materials

Numerous accompanying materials appeared shortly after the hymn book. These are particularly important in the Evangelical Methodist Church, since the music of the congregations is normally in the hands of laypeople and there are hardly any church music experts in the congregations. The accompanying materials include

  • a workbook as a loose-leaf collection
  • an instrumental book with intonations, accompanying movements and harmony names as well as numerous upper voices and 20 rhythm models for foreign-language songs
  • a collection of reflections on the pictures in the hymn book
  • a collection of song devotions
  • a choir book for mixed voices with a separate book with accompanying movements
  • an edition on CD-Rom
  • a double CD with 57 songs

Bibliography and Sources

  • Hartmut Handt (Red.): Hymn book of the Evangelical Methodist Church . Published by the United Methodist Church in Germany, Austria and Switzerland / France. Media work of the Evangelical Methodist Church, Stuttgart et al. 2002, ISBN 3-89725-030-6 .
  • Hartmut Handt: What is actually “Methodist” about the UMC's new hymn book . In: UMC history . 26th year, issue 1, ISSN  1616-8801 , March 2005.