Top of the Pops?
The poll whose results we published last month unveiled 'Lord for the years' as your top choice among 20th century hymns. It was not alone in this, and 'Great is the Gospel' came second. But some readers have been puzzled by the contrasting results yielded by other surveys.
Why does the Church Copyright Licence scheme (CCL) show 'Be still, for the Spirit of the Lord' as the nation's favourite, followed by 'Shout to the Lord' and 'Shine, Jesus, shine'? How did the BBC come up with 'How great thou art' as number one - which came in our top ten, but only just? Their next places, not limited to one century, were filled by 'Dear Lord and Father of mankind' and 'The day thou gavest'
As in all surveys (though CCL is more than that) much depends on who you ask, and how. Americans often base theirs on how many books each hymn appears in. But most hymnals, not to mention boxes of transparencies, contain many items which are rarely sung. One church deliberately tried to use all the hymns in its book of 700, only to end up with nearly 100 it never needed. It is easy to think 'We can't leave that out!', and then realise no one has chosen it for 20 years.
