In the fall of 2003, UUA President Bill Sinkford appointed a task force of six UU Musicians Network members to create a new congregational hymn resource. This task force sought submissions for the new resource that offered fresh hymns, chants or songs that enliven worship; music for marking the seasons in the lives of our congregations; and music in a number of different styles including jazz, folk, pop, spirituals, gospel, praise songs, call-and-response, chants, rounds and traditional hymns.

Topics sought for material to be included needed to be UU-appropriate, and representative of one of the many areas of our devotional life, including materials highlighting the spirituality of the BGLT community, earth-centered and non-Western theologies, both male and female spirituality, and the music of cultures traditionally under-represented in our communities.

On August 9, 10, and 11, 2004, the UUA's New Hymn Resource Task Force met to make final selections of those pieces to be considered for inclusion in a new congregational singing resource to be published in June, 2005. Over 1,500 pieces were received by the deadline of July 15, 2004, and from that remarkable volume of submissions, nearly eighty were selected.

The New Hymn Resource Task Force is currently engaged in the process of contacting composers, lyricists and arrangers, as well as arrangers they wish to commission to work with already-composed pieces, to seek permission to publish their work.

This important new resource will debut in Fort Worth, Texas at the 2005 General Assembly. Further information about the publication, including pricing and ordering information, will be made available soon on this website.

The New Hymns Task Force will also be notifying all those composers who generously offered their works for consideration to thank them for their willingness to serve the Association through their music. To all who submitted music, we offer our appreciation.

In faith,

Members of the UUA New Hymn Resource Task Force:

Leon Burke
Jeannie Gagne
Dennis Hamilton
Ken Herman
Jason Shelton
Barbara Wagner (Chair)

Deborah Weiner (staff liaison)
Alison Valentin Chase (Administrator, New Hymn Resource Task Force)

Unitarian Universalist Association
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