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Negro Spirituals Featured in Hymnbook

Episcopal News Service. January 14, 1982 [82007]

NEW YORK (DPS, Jan. 14) -- Lift Every Voice and Sing, a collection of Afro-American spirituals and gospel hymns, has been issued by the Episcopal Commission for Black Ministries.

The new hymnal was developed in response to the Commission's theological statement which calls for the liturgical recognition of the culture of the black people as well as the traditions of the Episcopal Church, according to the Rev. Franklin D. Turner, staff officer for black ministries.

Turner said in the introduction to the new hymnal that many churches -- including the Episcopal Church -- have been slow to incorporate spirituals into the liturgy. "Thank God that kind of thinking is hopefully vanishing," he noted.

He said the Commission believes "that every people has the right to worship God in their own language and culture. The spirituals are an integral part of the Black culture and therefore must be an integral part of worship, no matter what the denomination."

Turner pointed out that "this supplement should not be perceived as a replacement for the 1940 Hymnal or the creation of a separate hymnal for Black Episcopalians. Rather, it is designed to serve as a supplementary or a complementary hymnal."

In his preface to Lift Every Voice and Sing, retired Bishop John M. Burgess of Massachusetts -- the first black diocesan bishop in the U.S. Episcopal Church -- said that the Commission hoped the book will be used "far beyond those parishes composed largely of Black people" in the Episcopal Church. "This music will serve the whole Church well," he said, "if, in making it its own, it will come to understand something more of the mission of all people in today's world."

Burgess said that the so-called evangelistic or gospel hymns, some of which are included along with spirituals in the new hymnal, "do not have the theological purity of the spirituals, nor do they arise out of the bitter experience of Black people."

However, he wrote. "The spirituals and the evangelistic hymns together stand as a witness that Black Episcopalians need not desert their grand musical heritage. They bring this as a rich gift to be included within the older Anglican tradition."

Dr. Irene V. Jackson, compiler and general editor of the book, noted that many of the 151spirituals and gospel hymns, which are included, were not readily accessible. "Many of the songs were contained in collections which were out-of-print and available only in archives and repositories...."

An essay by Jackson, "Music Among Blacks in the Episcopal Church: Some Preliminary Considerations," which is included in an appendix to the music, 'establishes an historical framework for this hymnal," she says.

The paper cover book is published by Church Hymnal Corporation and sells for $4.95.