After six years of work reviewing thousands of submissions and gathering hymns from across the world, 12 hymns of the new “Hymns—for Home and Church” will be available on May 30, 2024. The selections will include “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and will be published in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French. The hymns will be available in the Sacred Music and Gospel Library apps, and in the online Music Library.
An expanded video version of this story is available below while a shorter version will be available through World Report – a semi-annual program which highlights news and activities of the Church since the previous general conference. The World Report will be released this Wednesday, April 3, on Newsroom in 11 languages and will air on the Church satellite system during and beyond general conference weekend. It will also air on BYUtv and KSL-TV.
“We’re now more than ever a worldwide Church,” said Mack Wilburg, music director for The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square. “To be able to share hymns together from the worldwide Church, I think, is a really significant and an exciting thing.”
More groups of new hymns will be released every few months until the full hymnbook is complete in 2026. The same advance release plan will begin for many other languages over the next two to three years.
“The Church is filling the earth,” said Ryan Murphy, associate music director for The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square and hymnbook committee member. “As we continue to have more members of the Church from different cultures and backgrounds and diverse life experiences, we’re increasing the reach of our offerings through the hymns that allow people to feel that they are included in this hymnbook and that their voice can be expressed in worship through the hymns.”
Selecting hymns to please every Latter-day Saint is a challenge. Knowing this, the hymnbook committee worked with senior leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ to establish five guiding principles for the selection process. The hymns should:
- Increase faith in and worship of our Heavenly Father and his Son, Jesus Christ
- Teach the core doctrine of the gospel with power and clarity
- Invite joyful singing at home and at church
- Comfort the weary and inspire members to endure in faith
- Unify members throughout the church
“We are just so excited about the opportunity that a new hymnbook will give us as a Church to become unified, to meet those sacred music goals, and to come closer to our Heavenly Father and worship not only at church but at home every day,” said Steve Schank, chair of the new hymnbook committee. “These are the ultimate goals that we hope every Latter-day Saint achieves by using the sacred music of the Church in this new collection.”
This is an official press release re-published by LDSDaily.com from Newsroom.ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
