Favourite Protestant/non-Catholic Hymns!

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Great discussion so far; a question like this came up a while back, too.

My two favorite hymns aren’t specifically Catholic:

(1) This one was a favorite of my father who listened to the Protestant religious music show on Sunday mornings many years ago.

“Church in the Wildwood”

cyberhymnal.org/htm/l/i/littlebc.htm

This song has an amazing story. The writer of the song was looking at a valley and inagined a brown church there. He wrote the song, and returned years later to see that a brown church had been built there.

(2) Here’s one I sang in a school program in elementary school, about a chapel in a forest.

“The Green Cathedral”

aseekingspirit.wordpress.com/2007/04/10/i-know-a-green-cathedral/

Still think about this one, when I happen to be outdoors at night.
 
Edmundus1581 said:
I had hoped for a very free discussion here - and that is what we’ve had. When I first posted, I was thinking of church hymns, but other people thought of popular and commercial songs as well, and their posts have been most welcome.

We’d love to see some non-English hymns - anything that touches the heart and soul. 🙂
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I was hoping to find some Polish ones but haven’t found one that’s Protestant yet. Perhaps someone else knows of one. I know a couple of Swedish ones, though.
 
Dave_Noonan said:
“O God Our Help in Ages Past” youtube.com/watch?v=YDN623rmnEY
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Thanks for all the suggestions which keep rolling in, and the supportive comments.

I look forward to watching the videos at random, as time permits.

Ihave just watched this one - and am so delighted with it. I remember the hymn as a favourite, but I had forgotten just how beautiful the words are. This slideshow does a particularly fine job of illustrating the sentiments.
 
pnewton said:
I could go on for a long time. I often will take out my old Baptist Hymnal and sing. I will show restraint and list only two.

To God Be the Glory (for Fanny Crosby) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Crosby

It Is Well With My Soul (a beautiful statement of faith in suffering)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Is_Well_with_My_Soul

The stories are as inspirational as the songs. I have actually sang the last one at Mass once.
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It Is Well With My Soul makes me cry every time. What a sad but, true story. What faith.
 
There are so many hymns that I love that it’s difficult to know where I should begin. Protestants, of course, have a much stronger tradition of congregational hymn singing, and I recall an article which claimed that hymns served as an important ecumenical bridge between Protestant groups. When a Methodist, for example, moves and starts going to a nearby Presbyterian Church in their new town, the hymns are likely familiar and help bridge any theological or liturgical differences that might exist (actually, few of those today, since mainline Protestants generally are less insistent on doctrinal conformity).
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Among the hymn writers I admire most are Fanny Crosby, Charles Wesley, Isaac Watts the Gaithers, and John Paterson. Fanny Crosby was amazing in that she was blind since infancy but was able to write over 6500 hymns, mainly gospel hymns, perhaps the most prolific hymnwriter in all of history? Though she was a Methodist (they called that church Methodist Episcopal in those days, before 1939 - then United Methodist beginning in 1968), her hymns are found, often many of them, in most Protestant hymnals. The runner-up in hymn production is Charles Wesley, another Methodist (brother of John), who also wrote over 6000 hymns.  

 I have noticed in the missal that more and more Protestant hymns seem to be included. Which leads me to this true story that made the rounds in this area some time ago. A local priest met a local minister - friends - on the street here some years ago. The priest said: "I have a hymn to suggest for your people to sing. It was written by slaves and our people love it!" When the minister asked the named of the hymn, the priest replied: "Amazing Grace". The minister responded: "Hm! We've been singing that for 200 years, and it was written by a former slavetrader rather than slaves. Fortunately, John Newton gave up his nefarious business, repented, and became a minister."

  Maybe singing the same hymns will help remove the foolish prejudices from the past. Since I come from a mixed Catholic/Protestant heritage, I would consider that good. May God bless people of every creed, color, culture and country, and may religion serve as a bridge rather than as a barrier.
 
Edmundus1581 said:
Some of them are wonderful!

We’ll take original hymns by protestants, or hymns written by protestants from a Catholic inspiration. We’ll also take mistakes - but please make the correction kindly 🙂

Some may be by authors, or be submitted by posters, who would reject the term “protestant”. I apologise if the term offends, but it is getting a bit tricky to write for every sensibility - and I would like to give credit to the hymn anyway!

Here are some of my favourites -
  • Alleluliah, Sing to Jesus William Chatterton Dix
  • On Jordan’s Bank the Baptist Cry Charles Coffin
  • Come Down O Love Divine. From a poem by St Catherine of Sienna, but the familiar translation is by Rev. Richard F. Littledale, and the music by is Vaughan-Williams. I’ve rarely heard it in a Catholic Church 😦
  • Love Divine, All Loves Excelling Charle’s Wesley
  • When I Survey The Wondrous Cross Isaac Watts
  • Dear Lord and Father of Mankind John Wittier
This list very much reflects my origins in High-Church Anglicanism, but I hope to get nominations for hymns from a variety of protestant backgrounds.
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Coffin was a Catholic. I wouldn’t count “Come Down O Love Divine” as Protestant either.

As you say, this is a very Anglican list, though “Love Divine” and “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” are Protestant staples (and “Love Divine” is sung in Catholic churches, though usually with some abominable changes to the text that have nothing to do with theology and were introduced simply in order to eliminate archaic pronouns). “Dear Lord and Father of Mankind” is by a Quaker, but seems to be particularly loved by Anglicans–including yours truly. In fact, we sung it at my church today (where I play the organ) as the communion hymn (unfortunately people at my parish are not familiar with the wonderful Hubert Parry tune to which I originally learned the hymn).

For the record, just to make you and other Catholics jealous, here are the hymns we sang today:

Holy God, We Praise Thy Name (which is Catholic)
How Wondrous and Great Thy Works, God of Praise (paraphrase of Rev. 19)
The People Who in Darkness Walked (18th-cent. Protestant)
Dear Lord and Father of Mankind; and
Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken (a marvelous hymn about the Church by none other than John Newton, the evangelical Anglican who wrote “Amazing Grace”)

Edwin
 
Bbigam said:
Wow, I didn’t realize that For All the Saints was written by a Protestant! I love that one.
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It was written by a 19th-century Anglican bishop. Not making the whole “Anglicans are not Protestants” argument, only saying that you might be less surprised than an Anglican (and a rather high-church one, I believe) would write such a hymn than you would if, say, a Baptist did so!

The same is true of “Ye Watchers And Ye Holy Ones” with its invocation of the Blessed Virgin; and of “Alleluia, Sing to Jesus” with its reference to the Eucharistic feast at which Jesus is both priest and victim.

Edwin
 
Oumashta said:
All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name.
To be honest, I really wish we would sing this on the feast of Christ the King. It would be perfect!
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I wish you sang it too. I remember singing this hymn at the Presbyterian church service that helped move me to drop out of RCIA. (My Episcopal rector had wisely told me not to attend his church while I was in the process of discerning whether I should become Catholic, but I went to the service installing a friend of mine as the pastor of a Presbyterian church, and I remember thinking while singing this very hymn, “I haven’t really felt as if I was worshiping God for two months”; yes, I know that lots of you will tell me that I should have ignored my feelings, and maybe you are right, but this is what happened.)

After all, Methodists sing it, and the author was a Calvinist who broke with the Wesleys after initially working with them.

Edwin
 
Contarini said:
Coffin was a Catholic. I wouldn’t count “Come Down O Love Divine” as Protestant either.

**Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken **(a marvelous hymn about the Church by none other than John Newton, the evangelical Anglican who wrote “Amazing Grace”)

Edwin
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Ah, I’d forgotten that one! It is a great hymn, but I think the best thing about it is the music - Austria, by Franz Josef Hayden (A Catholic, obviously) - which is also the German national anthem, Deutschland Uber Alles. I always enjoyed singing that one as an Anglican!
 
Contarini said:
Coffin was a Catholic. I wouldn’t count “Come Down O Love Divine” as Protestant either.
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Thankyou, Edwin

Correct, Charles Coffin was a French Catholic, and I was unaware of that. Still, *On Jordans Bank the Baptist’s Cry *is similar to Come Down, Oh Love Divine, from my list, and others such as Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence, where although the original is Catholic, the familiar words (and possibly the tune) are Protestant (or Anglo-Catholic, etc…), and also, most importantly, the hymn is heard much more in Protestand than Catholic services. Translating a hymn is an art in itself, and the translator deserves some credit as the “author” of the translation, so, if he’s a Protestant, then I will call it a Protestant hymn, especially if his denomination then widely uses the hymn. As I said at the start, we’ll take hymns by Protestants, from a Catholic inspiration.

I think it is safe to say that the main reason, if not the only reason, that On Jordan’s Bank the Baptist Cry, or Come Down O Love Divine, and some others, are heard in English is because the Anglicans translated and adopted them, so I am giving credit where it is due.

Thanks for all the information in your posts, which are obviously more well informed than mine! 🙂

~ Edmundus
 
One of my other favorite song/s is Hurt by Johnny Cash-what a powerful song-and the video-if you haven’t seen it, go watch it-a very powerful video. As for hymns-from my catholic youth-one of my favorite hymns Let there, be peace on earth…and let it begin with me…-what a comforting hymn especially during these troubling times. One last song I want to mention is the song called, "Jesus loves the little children…-my little girl loves that song! I want to end on a happy note how reading everyone’s posts has really put a big smile on my face-so refreshing reading everyone’s posts. I was surprised that like the catholics singing protestant hymns such as amazing grace (I love that hymn, by the way), how even catholic hymns are sung in anglican churches and so forth-wow! Never knew that 🙂
 
lauraabarlow said:
One of my other favorite song/s is Hurt by Johnny Cash-what a powerful song-and the video-if you haven’t seen it, go watch it-a very powerful video. As for hymns-from my catholic youth-one of my favorite hymns Let there, be peace on earth…and let it begin with me…-what a comforting hymn especially during these troubling times. One last song I want to mention is the song called, "Jesus loves the little children…-my little girl loves that song! I want to end on a happy note how reading everyone’s posts has really put a big smile on my face-so refreshing reading everyone’s posts. I was surprised that like the catholics singing protestant hymns such as amazing grace (I love that hymn, by the way), how even catholic hymns are sung in anglican churches and so forth-wow! Never knew that 🙂
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This thread is an example of what the Holy father has pointed out: What unites is is greater than what divides us.
 
lauraabarlow said:
One of my other favorite song/s is Hurt by Johnny Cash-what a powerful song-and the video-if you haven’t seen it, go watch it-a very powerful video.
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Since you brought up Johnny Cash, he did a number of other religious or semi-religious songs. He did a concept album “Johnny Cash: The Holy Land,” tied in to his visit to the Holy Land. The album had the #1 country hit, “Daddy Sang Bass,” about a family singing together after church services. The B-side of the single was “He Turned the Water into Wine,” about the miracles of Jesus Christ (feeding the multitude, healing people, etc.).
 
Edmundus1581 said:
Some of them are wonderful!

We’ll take original hymns by protestants, or hymns written by protestants from a Catholic inspiration. We’ll also take mistakes - but please make the correction kindly 🙂

Some may be by authors, or be submitted by posters, who would reject the term “protestant”. I apologise if the term offends, but it is getting a bit tricky to write for every sensibility - and I would like to give credit to the hymn anyway!

Here are some of my favourites -
  • Alleluliah, Sing to Jesus William Chatterton Dix
  • On Jordan’s Bank the Baptist Cry Charles Coffin
  • Come Down O Love Divine. From a poem by St Catherine of Sienna, but the familiar translation is by Rev. Richard F. Littledale, and the music by is Vaughan-Williams. I’ve rarely heard it in a Catholic Church 😦
  • Love Divine, All Loves Excelling Charle’s Wesley
  • When I Survey The Wondrous Cross Isaac Watts
  • Dear Lord and Father of Mankind John Wittier
This list very much reflects my origins in High-Church Anglicanism, but I hope to get nominations for hymns from a variety of protestant backgrounds.
Click to expand...
My favorite is As the Deer youtube.com/watch?v=UZv3jzOTE70
 
This thread is an example of what the Holy father has pointed out: What unites is is greater than what divides us.
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Not quite sure what you mean here is that flattering. Even atheists (you know, those guys who don’t want prayer in schools, etc.) sing “America the Beautiful” and “God Save Our King.”
 
Edmundus1581 said:
I think it is safe to say that the main reason, if not the only reason, that On Jordan’s Bank the Baptist Cry, or Come Down O Love Divine, and some others, are heard in English is because the Anglicans translated and adopted them, so I am giving credit where it is due.
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Don’t take this the wrong way, Edmundus, but by that logic if they weren’t written by Protestants, most, if not all, English “hymns” can be called Protestant. (Outside of perhaps hymns to Mary and the Holy Spirit.) Even many Christmas carols, including Silent Night, have been translated into English. Contrast that with Polish (and probably Spanish too) hymns, where untranslated very few can be called “Protestant.”
 
A few of my favorites:

youtube.com/watch?v=sW33Af4k3H0
To Ever Live Without Me- performed by Jody McBrayer
I could never do this song justice- it really needs a singer with a beautiful voice.

youtube.com/watch?v=pA9V1JzM0p0
Draw Me Nearer- contemporary version by Caedmon’s Call
The megachurch kids get together and do something pretty special.

youtube.com/watch?v=phvrZkSMucI
Christmas Song- Flyleaf
If you try to find it on iTunes, you won’t be able to. From what I heard, it’s because Flyleaf isn’t signed to a Christian label and that’s what the label decided to do.

youtube.com/watch?v=S8Xz7cgdoWE
Resurrection Hymn- Stuart Townend
Perfect for Resurrection Sunday.

youtube.com/watch?v=BaNwTYJrYtA
Calling Out Your Name- Rich Mullins
That is a hammered dulcimer being used throughout this song. Credit a happy union of uncommon talent for uncommon instruments and the influence of the Native Americans he worked and lived with in New Mexico…alongside a Catholic priest, which is rather interesting. I remember when he died back in '97, about an hour from where I lived at the time. He may be gone, but he’s never forgotten.
 
cooterhein said:
I remember when he died back in '97, about an hour from where I lived at the time. He may be gone, but he’s never forgotten.
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And he was apparently in the process of becoming a Catholic. At least I have heard this repeatedly claimed.

However, I’m enough of an old (or young) fuddy-duddy that I would really just as soon not hear any of the songs you mention as part of the Sunday liturgy. Stuart Townend’s hymn is fine, but why sing it when you can sing “The Strife is O’er” or “Come, Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain”?

I’m not against contemporary church music altogether–in fact, my wife and I have made very modest steps toward making our parish’s hymnody a little more diverse. But I don’t understand why so many Catholics are so deaf to the rich liturgical and musical traditions of the Western Church.

Edwin
 
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