Robert E. Webber (1) (1933–2007)

I am developing my hymnal collection focusing on Anglican-oriented hymnals.

The chief editor for Renew! was Dr. Robert E. Webber, who primarily worked in Anglican spaces at the time that this book was compiled, though he was quite ecumenical.

It's hard to determine what the target demographic for this hymnal is and how large it would be. A lot of the songs are from the Roman Catholic church (particularly the Taizé songs), but a lot of other songs are from Maranatha! and the Contemporary Christian Music industrial complex that is quite Protestant/evangelical. There is a large amount of liturgical music for processionals, confession, alleluia, creeds, communion, sanctus, acclamation, lamb of God, benediction, recessionals, etc. that makes it suitable primarily for Catholic/Anglican/Lutheran churches and really an odd choice for non-denominational/Baptist churches.

About 25% of the 308 songs & hymns in this hymnal are out of copyright/older than 1923, depending on if you count the songs that have had the lyric vocabularies modernized or the tune changed slightly & re-copyrighted. Most of the 75% newer songs date to the 1960s through 1980s, which is to be expected for a hymnal copyrighted in 1995. Back in 1995, most churches were moving away from using hymnals and using overhead projected lyrics, especially if they were singing contemporary songs. It's possible that some churches bought the hymnals so that people who can read music could learn the new songs more easily.

The most peculiar thing about this hymnal is the complete lack of holiday songs. The only song that most people would classify as a Christmas song is #1: O Come, Let Us Adore Him (which really shouldn't be sung only at Christmas time), or possibly #229 Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence. The closest things to Easter songs are #271 Alleluia! Alleluia! Give Thanks to the Risen Lord, the acclamation songs #209-212, #300 Christ Is Alive!, #235 O Sacred Head, Now Wounded, and #236 When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.

The next most peculiar thing about this hymnal is the selection of songs that give the option to not sing in English, with a very unusual assortment of languages represented. Almost all of this group are bilingual. The songs are:
#11 Cantemos al Señor (Spanish and English)
#74 Cantad al Señor (Spanish and English)
#76 Praise, I Will Praise You, Lord (French and English)
#78 I Will Exalt My God, My King (Spanish and English)
#80 Worthy is Christ (Spanish and English)
#83 Praise God From Whom [Doxology] (English, transliterated Korean, transliterated Chinese, and Hausa)
#86 Kyrie Elieson (English and Greek)
#121 Judges 5: ¡Canta, Débora, canta! (Spanish and English)
#137 Heleluyan (Alleluia) (only in Muscogee, but it's just the Muscogee transliteration of the word Alleluia repeated)
#208 Holy, Holy, Holy (Spanish and English)
#226 Ubi Caritas et Amor (half Latin and half English)
#230 O Christe Domine Jesu (10% Latin and 90% English)
#240 & 241 Dona Nobis Pacem (only Latin)
#261 There's No God as Great (Spanish and English)
#306 We Are Marching in the Light (option for half Zulu and English available for the whole song)
#308 Send Me, Jesus (Zulu and English)

One of the things that I appreciate about this hymnal is the emphasis on songs based upon the words of Scripture: songs 98-135. There are other songs based on Bible verses in other sections as well.

The paper used for my hardcover singer's edition is very thick and most of the songs are printed in a fairly high contrast, though how dark it is varies from song to song. I don't know if it is poor quality control during printing or if they just literally cut pages out of different hymnals to create the masters. There is no continuity of font size and boldness of type between 1 song and the next. The hymnal is very thin for as thick as the paper is because there are only 308 songs and some of them are just 1 or 2 lines of music.

The greatest downside of this hymnal is the lack of good indexes. There is only one index in the back which is an alphabetical listing of songs by title. You have to know the exact title of the song to find it in the index, and some of the titles chosen by the editors don't match with what most people call the song or hymn. I will be using hymnary DOT org to find what I like in this hymnal. (I highly recommend that website if you have any interest in hymns, hymnals, and selecting music for church services or personal meditation.)

Songs and hymns that I really like in this hymnal:
#14 Here in This Place (more commonly called Gather Us In by Marty Haugen)
#47 All Creatures of Our God and King
#101 Hail to the Lord's Anointed
#130 Luke 1:46-55 Tell Out, My Soul
#141 Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy
#148 The Servant Song
#151 Be Thou My Vision
#152 I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light
#164 Christ Beside Me [St. Patrick's Breastplate]
#177 The Lord's Prayer [Albert Hay Malotte version]
#208 Santo, Santo, Santo
#245 Awesome God [the chorus of the Rich Mullins song]
#249 Great is Thy Faithfulness
#276 Soon and Very Soon
#277 What Wondrous Love
#286 Lord, Whose Love in Humble Service
#297 Lift High the Cross
#301 God of Grace and God of Glory
#302 The Trees of the Field

In short, you might want this hymnal to reminisce about praise songs you sang in the 80s and 90s, especially if you need the musical notation because you've forgotten parts of the songs. If you are a young whippersnapper of a worship leader and you are trying to appeal to Gen X congregants who've been church attenders all their lives, you might need to learn some old music from the Jesus people era and this hymnal will assist you. If you are in a church that is split between Protestant and Catholic, this hymnal will certainly be helpful. I view this as an interesting curiosity and not very practical as a sole hymnal for a church.… (mer)

For some reason I never read the original edition of this book though I did have the opportunity to meet Bob Webber before he died. I read other, similar books of evangelicals who tired of the narrow rational Western protestantism and longed for a fuller, deeper connection to the ancient faith (such as Thomas Howard's Evangelical is not Good Enough). This revision of Dr. Webber's book adds material from others who caught his vision and took their own journey to an ancient-future style of worship.

I found the material still very relevant, though the post-modern evangelical church is somewhat different than the one Dr. Webber critiqued. And the various faith journey's shared are helpful perspective on our desire to discover all that worship of God can mean in our lives. Whether the desire is for a more mysterious ancient connection to God or simply a "wider" space in which to work out our faith, many find themselves on a similar journey at some point in their lives and this book helps frame the search and give it context.… (mer)