The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada – founded in 1922 as The Hymn Society of America and renamed in 1991 – is a not-for-profit organization for those people who: believe that congregational song is an integral component of worship believe that the writing and singing of new texts and tunes needs to be promoted value learning about the origins of the words and music they sing
Members of The Hymn Society include clergy and worship leaders, church musicians, poets, composers, scholars, libraries and congregational singers of varied backgrounds and interests. Members of all denominations, races and cultures participate in the annual conferences and workshops sponsored by The Hymn Society. The Society produces a quarterly publication, The Hymn, a journal of research and opinion, containing practical and scholarly articles and reflecting the diverse cultural and theological identities of the organization's membership. In 1984 it published, on microfilm, the Dictionary of American Hymnody (edited by Leonard Ellinwood and Elizabeth Lockwood), an index to the texts of more than 8000 North American hymnals.
Center for Congregational Song The Center for Congregational Song (CCS) is the resource and programmatic arm of The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada. Run by The Hymn Society and funded by Society members and donors, it works to fulfill The Hymn Society's mission to "encourage, promote, and enliven congregational singing". The current Director of the CCS is Brian Hehn.
Fellowship Since 1942, the Hymn Society has awarded a fellowship for hymnwriters, composers, hymnal editors and hymnologists. It is the society's highest individual honor. Fellowship recipients include:
1942: William Walker Rockwell 1944: Harry Burleigh 1946: Clarence Dickinson and Helen Adell Dickinson 1952: Henry Wilder Foote, Harry Emerson Fosdick, J. Vincent Higginson, John Haynes Holmes and William P. Merrill 1956: Luther D. Reed 1957: Ruth Messenger 1962: Walter Edwin Buszin, Leonard Ellinwood, Armin Haeussler, Earl E. Harper and Thomas Tiplady 1966: Deane Edwards 1967: William Watkins Reid 1968: Phillip Sidney Watters 1970: David Hugh Jones 1972: Lee Hastings Bristol Jr., Shirley Lewis Brown, George Litch Knight and Jean Woodward Steele 1975: Jan O. Bender and Ralph Mortensen 1980: Francis Bland Tucker 1982: Fred Pratt Green and Frank Von Christierson 1983: James Rawlings Sydnor and Anastasia van Burkalow 1985: Erik Routley (posthumously), John Whitridge Wilson 1986: Austin Cole Lovelace and Stanley Llewellen Osborne 1988: Jaroslav Vajda 1989: Donald Hustad and Mary K. Oyer 1990: George Herbert Shorney
1991: Hugh Thomas McElrath 1992: William Jensen Reynolds and Carl Schalk 1993: Margaret Clarkson and Carlton R. Young 1995: Ellen Jane Lorenz and I-to Loh 1996: Mary Louise VanDyke, W. Thomas Smith and Sylvia G. Dunstan (posthumously) 1997: L. David Miller and Timothy Dudley-Smith 2000: Alice Parker 2001: Frederik Herman Kaan and Brian Wren 2002: Harry L. Eskew 2004: Emily R. Brink, Herman Gustav Steumpfle Jr. and Paul H. Westermeyer 2006: Robert J. Batastini 2007: Carl P. Daw Jr. and John L. Bell 2008: C. Michael Hawn 2009: Shirley Murray 2010: David W. Music, Paul A. Richardson and Paul R. Powell 2013: Ruth C. Duck and Delores Dufner 2014: Fred Kimball Graham and Nicholas Temperley 2015: W. James Abbington Jr. 2016: Daniel Charles Damon, Deborah Carlton Loftis and John Thornburg 2017: John Ambrose, Melva W. Costen, João Faustini and John Richard “Dick” Watson
2018: S T Kimbrough Jr., Patrick Matsikenyiri and Pablo Sosa 2019: Ken Nafziger and Thomas H. Troeger 2020: Mary Louise Bringle, Nancy Rosenberger Faus-Mullen and Gracia Marie Grindal 2021: Andrew Donaldson, Robin Knowles Wallace and Sally Ann Morris 2022: Ysaye M. Barnwell, Jacque Browning Jones, Per Harling, Lim Swee Hong, Randall Sensmeier and Cynthia A. Wilson 2023: David E. Eicher and Simei Monteiro 2024: Marty Haugen, Jan Kraybill, Mark Miller and Adam M. L. Tice 2025: Michael Joncas, Raquel Mora Martínez, Mary Frances Reza and Tina Schneider 2026: Beverly Howard, Mary Nelson Keithahn, J. Michael McMahon, Martin Tel, Karen B. Westerfield Tucker
See also Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland
References
External links
The Hymn Society of America: Its History and Purpose (1936)