Our treasured hymnals: a revered publishing tradition in black religious music, started in 1801, continues today

Black Issues Book Review, Nov-Dec, 2004 by Kathryn V. Stanley

Last year, while visiting an African Methodist Episcopal Church in Cape Town, South Africa, I was moved to tears by a teenage boy who fervently joined in the singing of my favorite hymn, "Great Is Thy Faithfulness." I must admit that I was really surprised to see that a child of the 21st century was familiar with a traditional hymn at a time when a growing number of Christian congregations have traded in hymnbooks for overhead projection screens that beam the words to praise songs. Nevertheless, the singing of hymns and the use of hymnals appear to be alive and well for many church folk of African descent. That has been made possible by the long tradition of publishing and updating hymnals of treasured songs.

The African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church led the way in the publication of the first hymnal specifically designed for use by African American congregations. In 1801, Richard Allen, founder and first bishop of the AME Church, compiled a hymnal entitled A Collection of Spiritual Songs and Hymns, Selected From Various Authors, which contained 54 hymns. Typical of hymnals of the era, Allen's collection was pocket-sized and it printed only the text of the hymns. Allen featured hymns that were widely sung by African American Christians of the day, about a third of which were written by well-known white hymn writers, such as Charles Wesley and Isaac Watts. This was in contrast to the tradition of improvised Negro spiritual music, which had mostly been passed down orally and anonymously. Hymns, spirituals and gospel music--distinctively different types of music--coexist in black worship.

The AME Hymnal underwent revisions. Notably in 1818, the hymnal was expanded to include 314 hymns and was organized according to the "various stages of the Christian Experience." In 1898, for the first time, the hymnal included music as well as text. Today, the AME Hymnal, last published in 1984, has evolved to incorporate much of the liturgy.

Other predominantly African American denominations also began to publish hymns in the 19th century, including the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (1838); The African Union Church (1839); the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church (1891); and The Church of Christ Holiness (1899). The first official hymnal of the Church of God in Christ, Yes, Lord!, entered the scene much later in 1982.

The National Baptist Publishing Board began publishing Songbooks as early as 1898, but it did not publish its first official hymnal until 1924. Prior to that, however, in 1921, the Sunday School Publishing Board of the National Baptist Convention, USA published Gospel Pearls. According to Dr. Eileen Southern, Professor Emerita of Music and Afro-American Studies at Harvard University, the publishing of Gospel Pearls, an anthology of the most popular black church music of the early 20th century was a very significant event in black hymnal publishing because the hymnal featured traditional Protestant hymns, alongside gospel hymns by white and black composers that had not been previously included in traditional hymnals.

While published by Baptists, Gospel Pearls was widely used in other denominations. Indeed, as a child growing up in the United Church of Christ, I recall the little red hymnbook sitting alongside our "traditional" hymnal. We children were always excited when the bulletin indicated that we would sing from Gospel Pearls because very often it was the only gospel music that we heard.

In the past 20 years, a number of black hymnals have emerged from mainline denominations where African Americans are in the minority to assure that church music represents diverse cultural experiences. One of the first, Songs of Zion (Abingdon Press, May 1981) was published by the United Methodist Church and contains a history of black music in addition to hymns, spirituals and gospel songs. A companion book entitled Come Sunday: The Liturgy of Zion (Abingdon Press, December 1990) delves into the African American church experience as portrayed in Songs of Zion.

Also, in 1981, The Episcopal Church published Lift Every Voice and Sing: A collection of African-American Spirituals and Other Songs (The Church Hymnal Corporation, June 1981). A second edition, Lift Every Voice and Sing IL: An African American Hymnal, was released in June 1993. In 1987, under the auspices of the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, Black Catholics were given Lead Me, Guide Me: The African-American Catholic Hymnal (GIA Publications, December 1987), which proved to be popular among African American Catholics and other black Christians. A second edition of Lead Me, Guide Me is currently in the works.

At least one mainline denomination has sought to have hymns and other service music by African American composers included in the denomination's standard hymnal. In 1995, the United Church of Christ (UCC) published The New Century Hymnal (Pilgrim Press). "The United Church of Christ hymnals have always had a 'black' section that contained spirituals and other songs," says Dr. A. Knighton Stanley, veteran UCC pastor and member of the hymnal committee. "However, we fought to assure that hymns from the African American tradition and the tradition of other groups were not segregated in The New Century Hymnal. We insisted, therefore, that songs of the black tradition and other people of color appeared throughout the hymnal in the appropriate liturgical sections."