Not many people know this, but very soon we reach the end of the 20th century; the second Christian millennium, in fact. One or two people seem to have jumped the gun 12 months ago; never mind them.
How shall we mark the occasion memorably? From the stacks of major hymn books appearing towards the end of this age, I recently picked up ten. Seven are broadly denominational; add three which cross all such boundaries, and we have maybe 90% of the material which Protestant Christians turn to every Sunday if they use books at all. (If they don't, they still benefit from the books their transparencies borrow from.)
How many 20th century hymns, do you think, appear in all ten? If you subscribe to the Quarterly News of Hymnody you may remember the answer. Before I looked, I had no idea. But the total was still surprising for its smallness. Five hymns came in nine of my chosen hymnals, but only three swept the board. Only three (so far) have been judged by editors to be indispensable fruits of the past hundred years.
