ARTICLE 48

Advisory Committee 4, Confessional Matters, the Rev. E. Bossenbroek reporting, presents the following:

THE CONTENT OF HYMNS AND ANTHEMS IN WORSHIP

A. Materials:

1. Report 20
2. Overture 13

B. Recommendations:

1. That synod adopt the following addition to Article 52c of the Church Order: These regulations shall also apply when supplementary hymns are sung by the congregation. Article 52c will then read: "The consistory shall see to it that if choirs or others sing in the worship services, they observe the synodical regulations governing the content of the hymns and anthems sung. These regulations shall also apply when supplementary hymns are sung by the congregation."
(Note—your advisory committee has deleted the phrase "as a whole" from the provisional addition because it believes these words to be redundant.)

Ground: The provisional change which has been before the churches since the Synod of 1974 has produced no negative response on the part of the churches.

-Adopted

2. That synod add the following question to the guide for church visiting: "Do you observe the synodical regulations governing the content of hymns and anthems to be sung in worship services, and do you supervise the choice of choir anthems, solo anthems and supplementary hymns according to these regulations and according to the statement and implications of the principles of music as found in the Psalter Hymnal ?"

Ground: There is presently no question in our guide for church visiting which addresses itself to the music used by the churches in their worship.

-Adopted

3. That synod declare this to be its answer to Overture 13.

-Adopted

Overture 13 - The Content of Hymns and Anthems in Worship
(Art. 48)

Classis Hudson overtures synod to adopt finally the provisional addition to Article 52c of the Church Order: "These regulations shall also apply when supplementary hymns are sung by the congregation as a whole," (Acts of Synod, 1974, p. 109) and simultaneously to add the following corresponding question to the church visiting Examination Guide:

"Do you observe the synodical regulations governing the content of hymns and anthems to be sung in worship services, and do you explicitly supervise the choice of choir anthems, solo anthems, and supplementary hymns according to these regulations and according to the statement and implications of the principles of music as found in the Psalter Hymnal?"

Grounds:
1. The 1974 Synod's provisional addition to Article 52c of the Church Order, while granting congregations welcome freedom to use a wide and hitherto prohibited body of rich, biblical hymns, also risks congregational use of an equally wide body of faddish, undignified, individualistic, sentimental, trivial, Arminian, and otherwise objectionable and unReformed hymns. Consistories, if newly granted great freedom to choose supplemental hymns for use in worship services, must also be actively urged by church visitors to assume seriously their new responsibility for supervising the choice of such hymns.

2. Because it is just as easy to sing as to say heresy, and to play as to say what is unfitting in a Christian Reformed Church, consistories need much greater encouragement and more frequent reminders, than are now given, to supervise the choice of all music, including music offered by organists, pianists, instrumentalists, choirs, and occasional singers. Church visiting seems to be the fitting occasion for such encouragement and reminder.

Classis Hudson
Ralph Wildschut, stated clerk

XI. PREVIOUS SYNODICAL DECISIONS

1. Ratification of Change in Church Order Article 52c

SIC calls the attention of synod to the fact that the Synod of 1974 adopted a provisional addition to Article 52c of the Church Order and decided that final adoption be considered by the Synod of 1975. The decision of 1974 reads as follows:

"That synod, in essential agreement with the overture from First CRC of Grand Rapids, provisionally add the following to Article 52c of the Church Order with final adoption to be considered by the Synod of 1975:

'These regulations shall also apply when supplementary hymns are sung by the congregation as a whole.' "

Grounds:

a. The right of the consistory to enrich the worship of the congregation with the use of hymns and anthems sung by 'choirs and others' is granted in Article 52c which establishes the prerogatives and responsibility of the consistory in determining acceptable praise materials. To extend this to congregational singing of certain hymns in addition to those directly approved by synod does not jeopardize the quality of congregational worship.

b. This addition will make explicit the responsibility of the consistory 'to see to it that. . . the synodical regulations governing the content of hymns and anthems be observed' in each situation where such hymns are presently being used in addition to the synodically approved songs. (These regulations are found in the Second Supplement to the Church Order, Article X.) Synod calls special attention to the statement: 'or such anthems or hymns which have previous consistorial approval as to their scriptural soundness and to the statement of the principles of music as found in the Psalter Hymnal.')

c. This addition would allow the use of scripturally-sound hymns other than those synodically approved but in no way authorizes supplementary hymnals" (Acts of Synod, 1974, p. 109).