Welcome to the column about Real Hymns, and which you can help to write - not next month, but maybe the one after that. But first, what are they?
Within living memory, a moment of new-sounding music at church was a breath of fresh air. We were glad to change from the relentless foursquare plodding of some creaky old Victorian hymns, into lighter rhythms, plainer language and newer instruments to vary the musical diet. As a new millennium dawns (at least for most people), the scene has changed. It is not uncommon now, after an orgy of self-indulgent, self-centred and supremely self-satisfied songs, for someone to stumble on a Watts or a Wesley and exclaim: 'Wasn't it good to have a real hymn!'
Time for straight talking. I love good songs! I have even tried to write some, with no great success. There are also some rather bad hymns and, yes, I have written those too. But like the Psalms, songs are actually doing a different job in the service, and one genre cannot easily supply the lack of another.
