Favourite Music

www.ccli.co.uk/worshipresources/top25.cfm lists the top 25 songs reported by churches in their copyright licence returns between 1 April and 30 September 2005. The ones most likely to be sung by Catholic congregations include ‘Be still for the presence of the Lord’ (number 2), ‘Shine Jesus shine’ (number 9) and ‘The servant king’ (number 11). There is a separate listing for hymns used in schools - these include ‘I danced in the morning’ (number 3), ‘Colours of day’ (number 4), ‘The butterfly song’ (number 8) and ‘Peace, perfect peace’ (number 9).

Songs of Praise, on Sunday 30 April, comprised the nations’ top ten favourite hymns as voted by Songs of Praise viewers (and unlike the ccli listings above, included hymns no longer in copyright). In reverse order, they are:

10 Shine, Jesus shine
9 In Christ alone
8 Guide me, O thou great Redeemer
7 Make me a channel of your peace
6 Be still, for the presence of the Lord
5 Love divine, all loves excelling
4 Be thou my vision
3 The day thou gavest
2 Dear Lord and Father of mankind
1 How great thou art

Radio 4's Sunday Programme launched a search for the nations top favourite and least favourite hymns during July.  The results of the month long poll were as follows:

Top 3 favourite hymns
1st   Dear Lord and Father of mankind
2nd   Guide me O thou great redeemer
3rd   Be thou my vision

Top 3 least favourite hymns
1st   Shine Jesus shine
2nd   All things bright and beautiful
3rd   Lord of the dance.

In our newsletters we run a series on favourite music. This is reproduced in this section. Please navigate your way through this using the menu on the right.

The name of God

At the end of June last year the Congregation for Divine Worship sent out to Bishops’ Conferences directives on the use of Hebrew Tetragrammaton - YHWH (Yahweh or Jehovah) in the liturgy.  Bishop Arthur Roche, the Chairman of the Department for Christian Life and Worship of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, has since issued a statement.  In it, he welcomes the attention the Congregation has given to the due reverence we owe to the name of God, and also notes that the use of Yahweh is highly offensive to the Jewish people.

Bishop Roche observes that the name is found in some liturgical songs, and parishes in England and Wales are asked to either omit or amend any such texts.  The term is also to be avoided in composed texts such as the prayer of the faithful.

In the popular hymn, ‘Yahweh, I know you are near’, a suitable alternative may be ‘Lord God, I know you are near’.

What hymns would you like to see reviewed?

If there is a hymn you would like to find out more about, or want to tell us about, please fill in the form.

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Susan McQuiston says:

I would like to see See,what a morning, by  Keith Getty and Stuart Townend, reviewed.

I first heard this hymn on west sound radio on sunday at 7 program.
Religious music from 7pm-10pm.  This song has got to me and is very catchy.

I went to the "Sounds Of Praise" evening that was advertised on west sound to raise funds for cash for kids and it was played there too.