Protestant hymns every sunday?

[Joel_Tunnah]

My church, in Brooklyn, exclusively uses protestant hymns and spirituals during the procession, communion, and closing. The organist does solos and long slides across the keys, with the tremolo going the whole time. I feel like a baptist.
I keep expecting to hear “Old Man River” at any moment.

Who approves these music choices?

I attended an Episcopal service two weeks ago, and they were doing chant, and Bach. It was beautiful, and inspiring. It crossed my mind to go back there last sunday.

 

[bpbasilphx]

I recall seeing some conservative/rad trad site complaining that “Faith of our Fathers” was a Protestant hymn.

 

[Caesar]

My church, in Brooklyn, exclusively uses protestant hymns and spirituals during the procession, communion, and closing. The organist does solos and long slides across the keys, with the tremolo going the whole time. I feel like a baptist.
I keep expecting to hear “Old Man River” at any moment.

Who approves these music choices?

I attended an Episcopal service two weeks ago, and they were doing chant, and Bach. It was beautiful, and inspiring. It crossed my mind to go back there last sunday.

The aging hippies entrenched in the diocesan and parish liturgical offices insist on using modern and even protestant music at Mass. It is but part of this “spirit of Vatican II” (though the letter of Vatican II clearly states that the Catholic music tradition is the Church’s greatest treasure and that Gregorian chant is especially suitable for Mass- but then who really cares what Vatican II actually said, its what the council stands for that matters today) that seeks to cast a shadow over anything that recalls the opressive, superstitious days of the old pre-Vatican II Church. Lex orandi, lex credendi after all- wouldnt want to give anyone the false impression that Catholics are actually Catholic.

 

[Petite]

My church, in Brooklyn, exclusively uses protestant hymns and spirituals during the procession, communion, and closing. The organist does solos and long slides across the keys, with the tremolo going the whole time. I feel like a baptist.
I keep expecting to hear “Old Man River” at any moment.

Who approves these music choices?

I attended an Episcopal service two weeks ago, and they were doing chant, and Bach. It was beautiful, and inspiring. It crossed my mind to go back there last sunday.

Why don’t you ask the oganist about the music? Is the organist the music director? What would happen if you were to suggest hymns that you wanted to hear?

FWIW: Bach was a devout Lutheran.

Nevertheless, innovation even in Bach’s time was not always immediately welcomed:

He [Bach]returned to Arnstadt three months late, having also visited Reincken in Hamburg and Böhm in Lüneburg on the way, full of new ideas and enthusiasm which he immediately put into practice in his playing. **The congregation however was completely surprised and bewildered by his new musical ideas: there was considerable confusion during the singing of the chorales, caused by his “surprising variations and irrelevant ornaments which obliterate the melody and confuse the congregation”. **
The Church Council resolved to reprimand Bach on his ‘strange sounds’ during the services, and they also asked him to explain the unauthorized extension of his leave in Lübeck. Bach did not attempt to justify himself before what must have seemed to him a group of narrow minded and conservative old gentlemen; yet the Council, knowing how skilled his playing was, decided to treat their young and impetuous organist with leniency.

–from baroquemusic.org/bqxjsbach.html

 

[Leopard]

…I feel like a baptist.
I keep expecting to hear “Old Man River” at any moment…

Old Man River is a Baptist hymn?

 

[Malcolm_McLean]

My church, in Brooklyn, exclusively uses protestant hymns and spirituals during the procession, communion, and closing. The organist does solos and long slides across the keys, with the tremolo going the whole time. I feel like a baptist.
I keep expecting to hear “Old Man River” at any moment.

Who approves these music choices?

Ultimately the parish priest is responsible for the choice of hymns. However the musicians may actually make the decisions.

 

[Linnyo]

This is a crazy thread. A hymn is a song of worship directed towards God to show that we love/ adore him. How can a person define a ‘catholic hymn’ or a ‘protestant hymn’? And who cares anyway as long as they aren’t sung to Buddha instead? The purpose of singing to God is to show our love and respect, to join in with all the people who worship him. The Bible tells us to praise him with the trumpets, psaltery and harp. We can also use our voices to praise God. As long as we are not disrespectful then it is acceptable to sing whichever hymns are available to us. In fact, I have heard some very sincere, auster hymns originated from protestant churches just as in Catholic churches. I think there may be a touch of ‘Catholic snobbery’ in some threads. It is ok to not like certain ‘types’ of music (such as folk or rap) but to dislike it because the composer is ‘an inferior protestant’ is definately snobbery. Hopefully I have misunderstood the thread.

 

[brotherhrolf]

I recall seeing some conservative/rad trad site complaining that “Faith of our Fathers” was a Protestant hymn.

“Faith of our Fathers” seems like a Protestant hymn but is actually Irish Catholic. The “fire, dungeon, and sword” is a reflection on the English persecution of the Irish not Protestants being persecuted by Catholics.

 

[anamchara]

This is a crazy thread. A hymn is a song of worship directed towards God to show that we love/ adore him. How can a person define a ‘catholic hymn’ or a ‘protestant hymn’?

Many on here like to use the word, Protestant, as a pejorative. I came from the Protestant Church as a convert so I can’t wrap my mind around this sentiment. I loved our old hymns and thrilled that I could still sing them as a convert.

 

[daeve]

The aging hippies entrenched in the diocesan and parish liturgical offices insist on using modern and even protestant music at Mass. It is but part of this “spirit of Vatican II” (though the letter of Vatican II clearly states that the Catholic music tradition is the Church’s greatest treasure and that Gregorian chant is especially suitable for Mass- but then who really cares what Vatican II actually said, its what the council stands for that matters today) that seeks to cast a shadow over anything that recalls the opressive, superstitious days of the old pre-Vatican II Church. Lex orandi, lex credendi after all- wouldnt want to give anyone the false impression that Catholics are actually Catholic.

Caesar, dear, this aging hippie would appreciate you not using generalizations. We are not the source of all evil in the world, and I for one, resent your implications that the children of the 50s and 60s are ruining Mass.

I like Gregorian Chant, and I’m old enough to remember how it was done. I try to get Latin songs and chant into the liturgy all the time, but Lord of the Dance was forced down my throat and out of my lungs last Sunday. Our pastor is 18 years younger than me…not an aging hippie.

 

[Sr_Sally]

Many on here like to use the word, Protestant, as a pejorative. I came from the Protestant Church as a convert so I can’t wrap my mind around this sentiment. I loved our old hymns and thrilled that I could still sing them as a convert.

 

[adamsaj]

This is a crazy thread. A hymn is a song of worship directed towards God to show that we love/ adore him. How can a person define a ‘catholic hymn’ or a ‘protestant hymn’? And who cares anyway as long as they aren’t sung to Buddha instead? The purpose of singing to God is to show our love and respect, to join in with all the people who worship him. The Bible tells us to praise him with the trumpets, psaltery and harp. We can also use our voices to praise God. As long as we are not disrespectful then it is acceptable to sing whichever hymns are available to us. In fact, I have heard some very sincere, auster hymns originated from protestant churches just as in Catholic churches. I think there may be a touch of ‘Catholic snobbery’ in some threads. It is ok to not like certain ‘types’ of music (such as folk or rap) but to dislike it because the composer is ‘an inferior protestant’ is definately snobbery. Hopefully I have misunderstood the thread.

one defines a “protastant hymn” as one that was written by a protastant, and the problem with them is that many, maybe even most of these hymns contain heretical theology.

to answer the OP’s question. i could be wrong, but im almost posative that it is up to the Bishops office to approve what hymnals are to be used in his diocise. it is then up to the musical director of the individual parish which particular hymns to use on any givven sunday.

 

[djrakowski]

Many on here like to use the word, Protestant, as a pejorative. I came from the Protestant Church as a convert so I can’t wrap my mind around this sentiment. I loved our old hymns and thrilled that I could still sing them as a convert.

No problems here, as long as the lyrics don’t express doctrines that are contrary to Catholicism.

 

[brotherhrolf]

Caesar, dear, this aging hippie would appreciate you not using generalizations. We are not the source of all evil in the world, and I for one, resent your implications that the children of the 50s and 60s are ruining Mass.

I like Gregorian Chant, and I’m old enough to remember how it was done. I try to get Latin songs and chant into the liturgy all the time, but Lord of the Dance was forced down my throat and out of my lungs last Sunday. Our pastor is 18 years younger than me…not an aging hippie.

Daeve? Have you looked at music from Taize? We had a rector at my cathedral parish back in the mid-80s who forbade us to sing motets and plainsong in Latin - but Taize was OK. I was never a hippie but I am a child of the 50s and 60s.

But I have to say, back in the 70s when my Protestant father began attending Mass with us, it was quite surprising to hear him sing with gusto hymns which were perfectly new to my mother and the three of us.

 

[daeve]

Daeve? Have you looked at music from Taize? We had a rector at my cathedral parish back in the mid-80s who forbade us to sing motets and plainsong in Latin - but Taize was OK. I was never a hippie but I am a child of the 50s and 60s.

But I have to say, back in the 70s when my Protestant father began attending Mass with us, it was quite surprising to hear him sing with gusto hymns which were perfectly new to my mother and the three of us.

I don’t really know what Taize is. I looked it up, but I’m still not sure what you’re trying to say.

I was going to church in my old Brooklyn Parish in the 80s – 1984 - 1988 – then moved back to MO. The stuff we sang in Brooklyn was new to me, and apparently forgettable since I can’t remember anything, including the songs I taught my Communion class. I wasn’t going to church at all for most of the 1970s.

I’m just trying to say, don’t paint everyone over 50 with the same brush.

As a sidenote, though, the same old hippie who was playing the guitar in the late 60s at my neighborhood parish is STILL playing it at the noon Mass on Sunday. I cantor at another parish in the next town, and we’re all singing the same songs, but he plays them in a key only dogs can hear. I can’t imagine how a man in his 60s can still sing that high. The rest of the congregation wind up sounding like the nuns in Sister Act BEFORE Whoopee took over.

 

[brotherhrolf]

Taize is a Protestant abbey in France which has a reputation for ecumanism. Anyway, their compositions are easily singable by the congregation and many of them are in Latin and retain the flavor of plainsong.

amazon.com/Songs-Prayers-Taize/dp/B000003YKF/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1196282860&sr=1-1

We sing quite a few of these in my cathedral choir even today. Somehow, these were acceptable to our rector back in the 80s but I have to say I would much rather sing Victimae Paschali Laudes than Christians to the Paschal Victim and Pangae Lingua Glorisi than Sing My Tongue the Saviors Glory.

We used the 1940 Episcopalian hymnal in those years. We sang Palestrina’s Sicut Cervus as “Like as the Hart Desireth the Waterbrook”. Don’t get me wrong, our Anglican bretheren have written some really great choral anthems. But in the final analysis, we do have our own heritage as Catholics.

 

[daeve]

Taize is a Protestant abbey in France which has a reputation for ecumanism. Anyway, their compositions are easily singable by the congregation and many of them are in Latin and retain the flavor of plainsong.

amazon.com/Songs-Prayers-Taize/dp/B000003YKF/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1196282860&sr=1-1

We sing quite a few of these in my cathedral choir even today. Somehow, these were acceptable to our rector back in the 80s but I have to say I would much rather sing Victimae Paschali Laudes than Christians to the Paschal Victim and Pangae Lingua Glorisi than Sing My Tongue the Saviors Glory.

We used the 1940 Episcopalian hymnal in those years. We sang Palestrina’s Sicut Cervus as “Like as the Hart Desireth the Waterbrook”. Don’t get me wrong, our Anglican bretheren have written some really great choral anthems. But in the final analysis, we do have our own heritage as Catholics.

Yes, I’d like to sing Pangae Lingua and Tantum Ergo too. We do sing Adeste Fidelis at Christmas, although every year he says only in English, then starts singing the Latin anyway. No problem for me, but some of the young’uns have trouble reading the Latin. We do a nice Bone Pastor around Easter, and do a swell Lamb of God where the men sing the regular part in English, and the women do a little harmony of the Latin. People always comment on that. I can’t remember which Mass it is, Creation or God’s Promise or what…I always have to say which one is that?

We don’t really do anything I think of as Protestant, except on the feast of Christ the King we sing Soon and Very Soon. This year the guy who sings “Hallelujah” in between lines was out of town, so we were spared that. But we did have to sing Lord of the Dance. Ugh.

If I’ve ever heard any of the Taize music, I’m not aware of it.

 

[THutch04]

I don’t know that I would automatically say no to a hymn specifically because it was Protestant. Quite frankly some of the Protestant hymns are of much better quality (style and lyric-wise) than some of the music that is used in most Catholic churches today.

Actually, if I remember correctly, the hymn “Sing of Mary Pure and Lowly” was written by an Anglican. Gorgeous hymn that I really wish I heard more often.

 

[brotherhrolf]

It was years before I even knew that there were English words for Adeste Fidelis! We need to expose our children to more Latin - we learned as kids, right?

 

[brotherhrolf]

I don’t know that I would automatically say no to a hymn specifically because it was Protestant. Quite frankly some of the Protestant hymns are of much better quality (style and lyric-wise) than some of the music that is used in most Catholic churches today.

Actually, if I remember correctly, the hymn “Sing of Mary Pure and Lowly” was written by an Anglican. Gorgeous hymn that I really wish I heard more often.

You are indeed correct on this - the only thing one has to be careful of is to make sure that the theology expressed by the hymn is catholic (note small “c”) and not explicitly Protestant.

“Amazing Grace” is much beloved but Protestant in its theology.
We sang many versions which attempted to transform it into a catholic hymn. They were very awkward to sing (e.g. “saved a wretch like me” became “saved and strengthened me”). In the end, far too many Catholics knew the original lyrics and that’s what we sing. “Amazing Grace”, however, is the exception not the rule.