Review: The Covenant Hymnal, A Worship Book
Almost 40 years ago, I first held in my hands a Covenant hymnal — it was the "green one" — when at age 15 I accepted my first church organist position at Bethany Covenant Church in Bloomington, Minnesota. A year later, I moved to Park Avenue Covenant in Minneapolis as organist. (What a thrill to advance from an electronic organ to a three-manual pipe organ!) For the next four years, I enjoyed the broad use that Rev. C. Victor Nyquist made of that fine hymnal, including our annual Julotta service on Christmas morning which was all in Swedish!
In the intervening years, I served at a Lutheran church, and for the past 2S years have been Organist-Choirmaster at Plymouth Congregational Church in Minneapolis. During that time, I have become a devotee of hymnals, searching dozens of them for more wonderful hymns to put in a new hymnal I am preparing for Plymouth Church; it was a delight then to be asked to review the new Covenant Hymnal from this perspective.
First of all, let me congratulate all those who had apart in bringing this hymnal to fruition; it is a rich treasury of music and poetry drawn from many centuries, and it feels to me like a beautiful continuation of the "green book" of old. The editorial committee has covered a wide range of hymnody, bringing together a diverse and wonderful group of hymns from the past and present. This is a hymnal which has a point of view, and one I believe the Covenant churches will be using for many years to come.
I have a few caveats however:
- It would have been more useful for those involved in planning the service if the listing of poets and composers had been indexed separately.
- Several composers were definitely used to excess: 23 listings for Richard Carlson and 47 for Royce Eckhardt, yet none for David Hurd (probably the best of today's African American hymn writers) or for Calvin Hampton, Ian Kellam, or William Tans'ur to name just a few.
- Although the proofreading is commendable, a quick glance brought up these errors. The translator for Egil Hovtand's hymn, "Gathered in God's Presence," is Hedda Dumbaugh, not Hedwig Durnbaugh; the Christmas hymn, "O Thou Joyful, O Thou Wonderful," really needs the repeat of the opening phrase that is part of its original charm; and the final word in the opening line of "My Hope is Built on Nothing Less" should be hyphenated "right-eous-ness" rather than "righ-teous-ness."
All in all, it is a wonderful hymnbook, and I know it will bring joy and fulfillment to Covenanters.