New hymns!
The only problem I had with going out of town to visit family and see our niece and nephew's play this weekend is that we'll be leaving tomorrow, and tomorrow is the day the new hymns were supposed to be released. See, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been using the same hymnal for...wow, about forty years, and now they're working on an update!
The completed new hymnbook isn't going to be released until the second half of 2026, which is frustrating because we've been waiting for years already. Like, I remember being eager for the new hymnal back in the Beforetimes (before covid). But in the meantime, they're going to be releasing some of the new hymns in batches leading up to the final release date. Like I said in the last paragraph, the first twelve were set to be released tomorrow, which is when we'll mostly be on the road.
But then today! as I was practicing the piano, I thought, "I wonder if they released the new songs early..." So I checked the Sacred Music app, and there they were! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! And now I've played them all and I'm very very excited about it!
Here are some specifics! The first new song is "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing." It's not really a new song, but it will be in the new songbook, and it wasn't in the current one. Apparently it was in the official hymnal we used right before the current one, but they took it out, and very soon after that, the Tabernacle Choir performed an arrangement of it, and now for decades, people have been like, "Why can't we have that song in the hymnbook?" It is a very pretty song, but for that reason, I think it's a little overrated. That, and the fact that I think Mack Wilberg's arrangements are too technical and don't have enough heart, but I understand that that's completely subjective.
They also added "I Will Walk With Jesus" and "Gethsemane," two children's songs that are very very pretty, and I love them. And there are three new (old, but new to this hymnbook) Christmas songs, and a new Easter song! I don't care what time of year it is, I'm going to be playing every single one of them as prelude music for sacrament meeting in the coming weeks. One of the Christmas songs has kind of a Latin(?) beat to it, so it sounds very different from the Christmas songs we're used to singing, and that's just as exciting as them adding "What Child Is This?" Oh man, I'm so excited.
Today I'm thankful for new worship songs, getting to play all the new hymns before going on our trip, getting to go see our niece and nephew in a play, getting enough work done that we don't have to take work with us, and getting to visit our family.
The completed new hymnbook isn't going to be released until the second half of 2026, which is frustrating because we've been waiting for years already. Like, I remember being eager for the new hymnal back in the Beforetimes (before covid). But in the meantime, they're going to be releasing some of the new hymns in batches leading up to the final release date. Like I said in the last paragraph, the first twelve were set to be released tomorrow, which is when we'll mostly be on the road.
But then today! as I was practicing the piano, I thought, "I wonder if they released the new songs early..." So I checked the Sacred Music app, and there they were! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! And now I've played them all and I'm very very excited about it!
Here are some specifics! The first new song is "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing." It's not really a new song, but it will be in the new songbook, and it wasn't in the current one. Apparently it was in the official hymnal we used right before the current one, but they took it out, and very soon after that, the Tabernacle Choir performed an arrangement of it, and now for decades, people have been like, "Why can't we have that song in the hymnbook?" It is a very pretty song, but for that reason, I think it's a little overrated. That, and the fact that I think Mack Wilberg's arrangements are too technical and don't have enough heart, but I understand that that's completely subjective.
They also added "I Will Walk With Jesus" and "Gethsemane," two children's songs that are very very pretty, and I love them. And there are three new (old, but new to this hymnbook) Christmas songs, and a new Easter song! I don't care what time of year it is, I'm going to be playing every single one of them as prelude music for sacrament meeting in the coming weeks. One of the Christmas songs has kind of a Latin(?) beat to it, so it sounds very different from the Christmas songs we're used to singing, and that's just as exciting as them adding "What Child Is This?" Oh man, I'm so excited.
Today I'm thankful for new worship songs, getting to play all the new hymns before going on our trip, getting to go see our niece and nephew in a play, getting enough work done that we don't have to take work with us, and getting to visit our family.