Note-worthy

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This article was published 21/09/2019 (2286 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Music teacher Sean Goerzen plans to sing a musical marathon next weekend, and he’s inviting others join the chorus.

Beginning 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 27, Goerzen leads the people of Sargent Avenue Mennonite Church as they sing all 658 songs in their denominational hymnal over the weekend.

“This is one last sing-through of the old hymnal before we move onto the new one,” says Goerzen, 26, an organist, French horn player and chairman of the church’s music committee.

Not only will people be raising their voices for the 13½ hours of singing, divided into four sessions over two days, but they’ll also be celebrating seven decades of music at the West End church.

“We’ve been a singing congregation from the start,” Rev. Marla Langelotz says.

“Choirs and congregational singing have been important for 70 years.”

The congregational choruses continue all day Saturday, Sept. 28, beginning at 9 a.m. and continuing until 9:30 p.m., with one-hour breaks for lunch and supper. Goerzen says money raised from the meals catered by church members will be used toward the purchase of the new hymnals, expected to cost about $6,000.

Mennonite Church Canada and Mennonite Church USA will release a new hymnal titled Voices Together in 2020, 28 years after the publication of the current one.

Singers are welcome to drop in for one three-hour session, or stay until the final note has sounded, says Goerzen, who recruited a team of song leaders and accompanists to take turns over the weekend.

He rehearsed for the event by playing hymns on the organ for 60 minutes and then calculating the congregation could sing about 50 songs per hour if they only sing two verses of each hymn. He published a timetable on the church’s website and created a Facebook event so interested singers can choose the session that may include their favourites.

Christmas carols and Easter hymns are scheduled for 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Sept. 28.

Although the current hymnal was published in 1992, Goerzen suspects some of the hymns will be sung for the first and last time next weekend at Sargent Avenue Mennonite Church.

“Some of those Gregorian chants, there’s no way we’ve every done those,” he says of the congregation of about 200 people.

Most congregations have a repertoire of several hundred songs, but never use every song in the book, says a Winnipeg-based member of the committee choosing songs for the new hymnal.

“Hopefully there’s 200 songs that will be good for (a church) and the rest are for others,” says Darryl Neustaedter Barg, member of the Mennonite worship and song committee.

Denominations generally update their hymnals and song collections every 25 years or so to reflect changes in theology, practice and culture, says the director of the Center for Congregational Song.

“A hymnal is not designed to be a museum,” Brian Hehn says in a telephone interview from Washington, D.C.

“It is designed to be a living document that reflects who we are and who God is calling us to be.”

Hehn says most denominations publishing new hymnals include a digital version and another for projecting songs onto a screen. Barg says the new Mennonite songbook will be available in various electronic versions as well as the traditional book format. About half of the songs in the 1992 hymnal and its two supplements will be included in the new book.

Goerzen looks forward to singing some of his favourite hymns over the weekend, as well as learning some new tunes. Most of all, he anticipates strengthening connections with others as they sing from the same songbook from beginning to end.

“I think hymn singing for Mennonites is an act of community, it is a community joining together.”

 

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Join people from across the religious traditions in interfaith prayer services, 10:45 a.m. Friday, Sept. 27, immediately before the Global Climate Strike at the Manitoba legislature. The prayers run at two locations: All Saints Anglican Church, 127 Colony St., and Broadways Disciples United Church, 396 Broadway.

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