Someone I was visiting recently said wistfully, ‘We don't have many of my favourite hymns in church these days.' Of course, I immediately invited them to send me their favourites. Thankfully, they've taken me at my word; while I obviously can't promise to put everyone's favourites into every service - we might end up having Christmas carols every Sunday of the year! - I'd be very glad if others of you followed suit, and wrote or emailed me your top ten hymns; partly because I know how a favourite hymn can help us worship, partly because I'm curious to see which people know and love best. For those of you who have worshipped in more than one setting will realise that those hymns one set of people knows and loves may be completely different from those appreciated elsewhere - or, even if they are the same, we may find ourselves singing the ‘right' words to the ‘wrong' tune, or vice versa. While that can make us pay more attention to the meaning of words we've sung for years, or highlight new words by means of a familiar tune, it can also be disconcerting and unhelpful for worship. On the other hand, choosing the same hymns all the time can also be a mistake - we've sung ‘Love Divine' on three consecutive Sundays recently, and I reckon not even its most ardent champions will be calling for it again just yet!
That balance of the new and the familiar can be a hard one to strike in worship. Valuing our traditions is important, but so is clear communication; while I suspect a few people in St Andrew's wouldn't be too unhappy if we stuck to the metrical psalms, how does that well-loved language, in which words and grammar are manipulated to keep the rhymes intact, strike on the ears of a child, of someone from a different church tradition or none, or even of someone whose first language is not English? Our Reforming ancestors made a big point of translating the Bible from Latin into a language everyone could understand, and that must also apply to the hymns we use in worship. But since we don't all come from the same context, that principle entails using metrical psalms and songs from churches all over the world, hymns from the great old writers, from Augustine to Watts and Wesley, and songs from contemporary writers: Brian Wren, John Bell, Graham Kendrick, Jan Berry.
And those principles of valuing our tradition, seeking clear communication and speaking both from and to the spectrum of human experience must apply on a broader scale to all our worship at St Andrew's. While our morning worship continues in its traditional format, you may have noticed in recent service sheets that between now and Christmas ‘experimental worship' will be taking place on the last Sunday of the month at 6.30pm. This pilot series comes at the initiative of our younger worshippers, both students and workers. Each service will examine some Christian value - the first two being hospitality and listening - in the light of a discussion group on that topic about a fortnight beforehand. At the time of writing, the first of these services has not yet taken place, and I know little in detail about its contents, since different group members will be contributing material on different aspects of the theme. And while I appreciate our ordered Sunday morning worship, I'm also excited by this new initiative, another faithful response to the God who is the same yesterday, today and forever, yet who is also making all things new.