Hymnbooks of The Church of Scotland - Church Hymnary, Fourth Edition (2005)

Church Hymnary, Fourth Edition (2005)

In 1994 the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland appointed a committee to revise the hymnary; the convener was again John L. Bell. After consultation and protracted difficulties in obtaining copyright for some hymns, CH4 appeared in May 2005. It is published by the Canterbury Press (Norwich) and contains 825 items. In the spirit of Songs of God's People it continues the quest for diversity. For the first time a hymn book which was not specifically produced for the Gaelic community contains a hymn in Gaelic, the original text of the Christmas carol "Child in a manger". Many hymns have been modified to incorporate 'inclusive language'. For example "He gave me eyes so I could see", has been rewritten as "God gave me eyes so I could see" (Hymn 164). The feminist theology of the Motherhood of God is represented in "Mothering God" (Hymn 117). However, the temptation to reword such as "thy" to "your" has been resisted for old favourites, so "Great is thy faithfulness" remains untouched.

In a deliberate echo of RCH, CH4 opens with a collection of psalms arranged in the order of their original Psalm numbers (Hymns 1-108). Many of these come from the Scottish Psalter, and appear here without the doxologies added in CH3. (These doxologies are included as Hymn 109, but their separation from the texts of the psalms presumably means they will be relatively seldom used.) But the section also includes psalms from other musical traditions, as well as prose psalms for responsive reading - still not common in the Church of Scotland. The volume then continues, as did CH3, with a thematic arrangement of hymns, this time divided into three main sections each associated with one person of the Holy Trinity and subdivided into aspects of God and the Church's response. There then follows an international section of short songs, including evangelical choruses by writers such as Graham Kendrick and pieces from Taizé and the Iona Community. A final short section contains Amens and Doxologies.

In some ways this is the Church of Scotland's most ambitious hymnal to date, and certainly it is the longest. The immediate reaction of the Scottish press after publication was to report complaints of pensioners who found the volume too heavy to carry to Church, but its strength no doubt lies in the breadth of musical and theological traditions which it seeks to embrace. CH4 has a purple binding.

The hymnary is available in three editions: Full Music, Melody and Text. There is also a large print version. Music edition: ISBN 1-85311-613-0

A scripture index to CH4 is provided by George K. Barr, Selecting Hymns from CH4, no publisher, no ISBN, 2005.

In February 2008 Canterbury Press released a version of CH4 for the wider church, called Hymns of Glory, Songs of Praise, featuring the same content as CH4 under a different cover.