A marathon hymn sing in Roseville

The choir of St. Christopher’s sings the Hymnal 1982

by Susan Barksdale

Don’t like that hymn? Just wait a minute! These sentences could have been the slogan for the “Hymn-o-Thon” held Saturday, January 19, at St. Christopher’s, Roseville. For about ten hours (from 9 am to 7 pm) the parish choir set out to sing at least one verse of every hymn in the 1982 Hymnal — all 720 of them!

This was no idle amusement for a cold winter’s day. The purpose of the exercise was to raise money for the choir’s June pilgrimage to England, where it will sing services in a number of cathedrals and churches as well as tour other historic and holy sites. People could support the hymn sing in a number of ways. Among these were paying to have additional verses sung of a particular hymn or dedicating a hymn to a special person and guaranteeing a specific time when it would be sung.

“We had a basketful of dedications,” says St. Christopher’s Music Director Jacob Manier. “People were popping in and out all day to hear the hymns they had requested, and there was a lot of holding up of cell phones so that the dedicatees could hear ‘their’ hymns.”

Despite the sub-zero temperatures, there was always at least a small group of folks in the pews for much of the day, either listening or singing along. Many of the dedications had been requested beforehand from members of the congregation and others, so the cold weather did not detract from the fund-raising aspect of the event. It was an educational experience as well. A number of hymns in this book of 720 were unknown to many of the singers until last Saturday. Some were liked and some were not, as can be imagined in a collection of such variety, but a few previously undiscovered gems did come to light. “Our hymnal is a real treasure chest,” says Manier.

Such a hymn sing seems to be an ongoing tradition to raise funds for an English tour. The Church of Gethsemane in Minneapolis held a similar event twice in the 1990s, and St. Clement’s in St. Paul has done it as well.

At the end of the day for St. Christopher’s, about $3600 was raised at the Hymn-o-Thon. This put the choir “over the top” for its goal needed for the June pilgrimage. “Now we can stop worrying about the money,” says Manier, “and start concentrating on the music.”