Fun with Hymns

Right now I am the music chairperson in my ward. This means that I am in charge of organizing all of the music for sacrament meeting, including hymns, musical numbers, choir, the Christmas program, and the Easter program. One of my favorite tasks as music chairperson is to choose the hymns for each week. I try to choose hymns that will fit with the topic, and am often surprised and delighted to find out how the hymns end up echoing or complementing the talks that the speakers give.

Today I did something bold. The idea came up during a conversation with friends several weeks back, and the more I considered it, the more I really wanted to do it. I was nervous, though, and I ran it by my roommate before I committed it to the calendar. She was supportive, and that gave me the courage to go ahead. I thought very, very carefully about how to order the hymns I was choosing, made a decision, put it on the calendar, and let myself forget for a few weeks that I was actually doing such a thing.

The plan: Have the entire congregation sing "Ye Elders of Israel" and "As Sisters in Zion" in sacrament meeting.

The appropriate reaction at this point would be for your jaw to drop, and for you to say, "Wow, Amy, that's awfully daring and subversive of you!" If you are having a different reaction then it's either because you are in the Hill Street Ward and this is all old news, or because you don't realize that these are songs that are generally sung, respectively, by only the men and only the women, in either Priesthood or Relief Society meetings. Both hymns are, in a sense, rallying cries to the unique roles and responsibilities of the men and the women of the church. And while singing our own songs in our own meetings happens on a regular basis, I knew that putting them out there in a mixed congregation setting was going to throw folks for a loop, and would very likely make them squirm a bit. And yet I also thought that it would be really cool, and unifying, to sing each others' songs and to have a chance to think about the roles and experiences of the Other Half. I felt like putting these hymns on the program was entirely appropriate to the role of music in the church.

But I was still nervous about the making people squirm part, especially since I had no way of explaining to the congregation what was going on. Right before sacrament meeting the chorister, Dana, came up to me and said, "You know that the songs for sacrament meeting are for men and for women?"

"Yes, I know," I replied, with great confidence. "That's on purpose."

She grinned. "All right, then. This will be fun!" By which I think she meant, "I sure hope this goes over well because everyone is going to be giving me funny looks when I stand up there." I felt a little bad that she had to bear some of the brunt of my decision. (But I also think she got a kick out of it, at least a little bit.)

One of the advantages and disadvantages of playing the organ when you do such a daring and subversive thing is that you don't really get to see everyone's reactions. When I began playing the introduction for "Ye Elders of Israel," I thought I could hear a little bit of confused murmuring down in the congregation. But everyone sang, men and women alike, and I took that as a good sign. And when I looked out at the congregation afterward I saw big smiles on at least a few faces. I took that as a good sign as well. I was a little more worried about "As Sisters in Zion," because I thought the men would find it weirder to sing the women's song than vice versa, but I had taken that into account in my ordering. I knew that by the time we got to the second song, they would see what was going on and (hopefully) be more okay with it. And then men did sing. Yet another good sign.

In the end, I don't actually know how most people felt about the hymn choice. I'm pretty sure it caught people's attention. Exactly three people told me afterward that they really liked what we'd done. Maybe some people were really weirded out by the whole experience. Whatever the case may be, I like to think it caused members of the ward to think about what they were singing. And as so often happens I was pleased and surprised by the way the words of the two hymns tied into the talks that preceded them.

Anyway, no riots broke out, the unusualness of the choices didn't seem to disrupt the spirit, and I had fun :).