After returning to the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) after a 15-year absence, I embarked on a mission to create a hymnal supplement. When I learned that Luther himself had produced two
hymnals in 1523, and 1526- I figured, "why can't I?" The goal of the supplement has key important criteria goals: connecting with Luther, singable restored hymns and
liturgy, and educating - inspiring others with information on the music they are
singing. The book offers past, present and future and is to help in the
Lutheran identity.
I had left the American Lutheran Church (ALC) back in 1980 two years after the
Lutheran Book of Worship (LBW) came out. Being musical from an early age, I felt that the loss and alteration of key historic liturgies and hymns was a wrong move in the LBW. The new settings of liturgy were interesting and fun to sing, but something missing- our fabric of who we are as Lutherans in our
music through our liturgy. Moving from full score liturgy to the unison lines without any information on composer or material felt like it was dumbed down. What I did find in LBW to be most fun to sing was the new hymns from new composers and different churches. I think the updated English in the psalms and other key elements in the book are fantastic. However, when it came to the modernized harmonies and texts to the classic hymns- many of us were frustrated singing them because they didn't sing like they used to. To many of us Lutherans, LBW leaves a bittersweet taste in our mouths each Sunday still to this day.
One Sunday in 1980, my family discussed that we didn't want to go to church to sing out of the LBW anymore. So, thus began a search for a church with our missing music to connect to God. After visiting several churches, we soon discovered that Methodists were singing the beloved hymns we missed- and oh gosh, could they sing! Many of the same hymns and harmonizations with Amens found in the Service Book and Hymnal (SBH) were in the United Methodist Hymnal. Their hymnal even offered American folk tunes, ethnic, and African-American hymns never heard in our Lutheran circles before. The United Methodists seemed to have a grip on their musical past to identify with Luther and his connection to the Wesleys who founded that church. The Methodists even shared the same liturgy music as Lutherans from the SBH First Setting Common Service, and it was regularly used each Sunday. The threefold Danish Amen was also used there at the end of the service. There were many other Lutherans who became "methalu" when many of us joined the United Methodist Church.
