26 August 2026

We have made astonishing provision for our members  ‘that when the Kirk doth convene and sing, they may be the more able with common hearts and voyces to praise God’.  There have been two editions of the Church Hymnary and at least five supplements. It is our crowning glory.

Whereas CH3 was framed by the liturgy, CH4 preferred the creed. Whereas CH3 was criticised for not incorporating hymns from ‘Songs from the  Seventies’ and ‘Hymns for a Day’, CH4 had built its compilation on the back of ‘Songs of God’s People’ and more especially, ‘Common Ground’.

The latter introduced us to folk music and songs from other parts of the world. The compilers of the fifth supplement, ‘God Welcomes All’ selected 200 songs from 10,000.  A third are Scottish and mostly 21^st century with dementia,  laughter, Blue Christmas and God at the margins in the Topical Index.

Whereas the Roman Catholics were intimately involved with ‘Common Ground’, they declined to  participate in the compilation of CH4. ‘By 1994, most Roman Catholic congregations were singing songs written in the past 25 years.’  Paradoxically, our hymns had greater catholicity but  less modernity.

There have been an impressive number of initiatives to encourage musical accompaniments and support for organists. In 2010, the Free Church began to sing hymns with instrumental accompaniment. Throughout recent decline the Kirk’s song has been hopeful  like UA Fanthorpe’s ‘inedible friend’, the robin:

I nest in man’s stable,

I eat at man’s table,

Through all his dark winters

I sing.