Hymns for Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Day is an unusual holiday in the BCP — not part of the liturgical calendar, but with more theological significance than the other “National Days” (as my favorite hymnal terms them).

I previously wrote a 1500-word article for North American Anglican entitled “Hymns ‘of’ Thanksgiving and ‘for’ Thanksgiving.” Since people can read it there, let me summarize a few ideas here.

First, despite the origins of the holiday with the 17th century Pilgrims, the US ECUSA prayer book ignored the holiday until it got its own collect and readings in the 1928 BCP — and was also mentioned in the 1979 and 2019 prayer books. In the 1928, it has a substitute for the Venite that is derived from Psalm 147; this has four chants in Hymnal 1940 (684-687) although I think using the Venite plainchant (612) would be more realistic.

In the article, I identified eight hymns from the three current American hymnals — Hymnal 1940, Hymnal 1982 and Magnify the Lord (aka Book of Common Praise 2017) —as well as the US (1916) and English antecedents (TEH, A&M). From this, I recommended three hymns as suitable for a November harvest-themed festival:

• “Come, ye thankful people, come” sung to St. George’s Windsor (H40: 137; H82: 290; MTL: 203) was universally popular since its 1861 publication in Hymns Ancient and Modern.
• “We plow the fields and scatter” sung to Claudius (H40: 138; H82: 291; MTL: 204) also dates to 1861.
• “For the beauty of the earth” (H40: 296; H82: 416; MTL: 206,207) originated with The English Hymnal (1906), but there is little agreement on the tune.

All three of these appear in more than 400 hymnals, and thus may be known to Christians from other backgrounds. But for an ecumenical hymn that will be widely known, I’d recommend the Catherine Winkworth translations of two German hymns:

• “Now thank we all our God” by Martin Rinkart (1586-1649), was written about the Thirty Years’ War but is an excellent hymn of gratitude for the entire church year.
• “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation” by Joachim Neander (1650-1680) is also suitable year round, but more as a general hymn of praise.

The runners up are the Presbyterian “Praise to God, immortal praise,” the Dutch “We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing,” and the Anglican “Praise God, from whom all blessings flow.”

Together, these eight hymns cover both concepts of Thanksgiving — the November U.S. holiday or general gratitude to our divine creator.

"My Way" as Highway to Hell?

Among the most theological of C.S. Lewis' books is The Great Divorce. Lewis uses the writer George MacDonald — who he considered “his master” — to explain how so many people end up in Hell.

The Great Divorce was the subject of one of four talks by Peter Kreeft last week at the Anglican Way Institute. Kreeft, a prolific author and Catholic philosophy professor at Boston College, noted that one passage of the book is more quoted than any other:

There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.”

Kreeft considered this an apt summary of a doctrine of free will and salvation — as (during Q&A) did Fr. Lawrence Bausch, the outgoing head of Forward in Faith North America. In the end, this is just another manifestation of Pride, the first of the Seven Deadly Sins formalized in the 6th century by Pope Gregory.

The Pastoral Dilemma of Funeral Hymns

Hearing this summary of The Great Divorce suggested a potential pastoral problem. Sure enough: when I looked up the latest funeral hymn survey by a U.K. chain of funeral homes, this is what I found:

Based on the data and insights of our Funeral Directors and Funeral Arrangers, who conduct up to 100,000 funerals a year, we can reveal that our 2019 chart winner is... ‘My Way’ by Frank Sinatra.

The Sinatra song was tops not only in the 2019 survey, but also in 2016 and 2012. (It was briefly dislodged by “Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life” in the 2014 survey).

The problem is that, as Kreeft summarized, “Every time we choose ‘my will be done’ instead of ‘thy will be done,’ we choose hell.” In case people missed his point, Kreeft termed the Sinatra favorite as “the song people sing going into hell”. (While “My Way” has been the overall leader for most of the past decade, “Highway to Hell” was #5 on the Rock chart in 2016).

It’s a little too late to convert the heart of the deceased once he/she is in a pine box. So discussing funeral hymns seems like a catechetical opportunity for pre-need planning — at least for those who still want a church ceremony.