Worship
Judith Laoyan-Mosomos is the Director for Worship & Church Music at the Methodist School of Music, and a member of Kampong Kapor Methodist Church. / Photo courtesy of Methodist Recorder, UK
Fred Pratt Green:
The other Methodist hymn writer
T
hrough the years, changes in worship style, culture, and musical preferences
have increased the variety of congregational songs. There are hymns, contemporary songs, psalm settings, global songs, Asian hymns, gospel songs—among other genres. Which genre does your congregation love to sing? The music we sing reflects our identity. As Methodists, we sing the hymns of Charles and John Wesley. More than just keeping tradition, the Wesleyan hymns offer a music diet that is robust in Scripture, theology, doctrine and Christian discipleship.
The late Rev Fred Pratt Green © Methodist Recorder, UK. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Popular hymns written by
Aside from the Wesleyan hymns, there are other Methodist composers whose texts help shape our Christian identity. I particularly
Fred Pratt Green
want to mention Rev Fred Pratt Green
•
When in Our Music God is Glorified [UMH 68]
(1903-2000), a Methodist minister in Britain
For the Fruits of This Creation [UMH 97b]
only started writing hymn texts after his
When Our Confidence is Shaken [UMH 505]
greatest hymn writer after Charles Wesley.
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God is Here! [UMH 660]
in Great Britain in the 1970s, a movement
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O Christ, the Healer [UMH 265]
of hymn writers who believed it was time to
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24 Methodist Message February 2023
from 1928-1969. He was a gifted poet, and retirement, yet was acclaimed to be the He was the leader of the "Hymn Explosion"
write texts that spoke about their time.