Sunday evening, we had quite a polyglottal songfest at our PSST service (stands for Prayer, Singing, Scripture, Table - lay led). We have a couple of young men from Kyrgyzstan, ESL college students, who attend the service. Only one of them was there tonight, Sanzhar (the other, Edil, came to morning worship today for the first time!). We don't have any songs in Kyrgyz, but we do have a Russian Methodist hymnal, and they are almost equally fluent in Russian and Kyrgyz, and we sang
Come, thou long-expected Jesus (English only, to Hyfrydol)
Joy to the World (Sanzhar and I sang in Russian)
The Easter Song ("Hear the bells ringing"; English only)
In Remembrance of Me ("Red") (English only)
Near the Cross (I sang in Swahili, couldn't locate it in the Russian hymnal but I know it's in there)
Fill My Cup, Lord ("Like the woman at the well"; English only)
Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah (English only)
All Creatures of our God and King (Sanzhar and I sang in Russian)
Marvelous Grace of our Loving Lord (Sanzhar and I sang in Swahili; he thought it was Japanese!)
The Wonder of It All (English only)
Wonderful Words of Life (I sang in Swahili, Sanzhar sang in Russian)
Amazing Grace (Sanzhar and I sang in Russian)
Battle Hymn of the Republic (English only)
Lots of fun and great praise.
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4 comments:
Oh, that sounds like such fun, Leland!
Yep, it really was. I am trying to figure out some way to get a multicultural, polyglottal hymn sing going, maybe quarterly. I'm cross-referencing the songs that I have in more than one language, Japanese, Spanish, Russian, Cheyenne, Swahili, Korean, Vietnamese, and looking for more hymnals (I especially need evangelical hymnals in French and German). Somewhere, I think in one of the Boni Fireside songbooks, I read (probably when I was a kid) that in the 1700s a Moravian mission near Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, had a Christmas party where they sang "In dulci jubilo" macaronically in Latin and 24 other languages including 17 indigenous ones. That vision has inspired me much of late, even though it may be "rural legend".
i'm an evangelical missionary in Moldova and i've been looking forever for a russian methodist hymnal. you don't happen to know if it exists anywhere in electronic form or how i might come across one myself?
stevenandteresa@gmail.com
Eastern European Mission has produced a Russian Hymnal, Vo Slavu Gospada: Khristianskiye Gimny (“To the Glory of the Lord: Christian Hymns”). It was published in Vienna, Austria in 2005. I can’t find anywhere to order it on their site, but they are more focused on providing Bibles and other Christian printed material to the former Soviet Union than they are selling these items in the United States. You might check their website for contact info (eem.org). There is also a snail mail address of Box 90755, Houston, TX 77290 to which inquiries, suggestions, and corrections may be sent.
The hymnal itself is hardback with 354 songs. It has many classic hymns and gospel songs. Just thumbing through it I see titles like “Trust and Obey,” “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus,” “I Gave My Life For Thee,” “O Sacred Head Now Wounded;” at least one Southern Gospel title: “Sing and Be Happy;” it is balanced with modern songs, too: “Let There Be Praise,” “Lord, Be Glorified,” “I Sing Praises to Your Name,” “Firm Foundation;” it even has children’s songs: “The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock,” “My God is So Great,” “Zacchaeus,” etc.
All but one song (that I found) has SATB in round notes. This particular hymnal was primarily published for churches of Christ, who, as you may know, sing a cappella from what we understand the practice of the First Century church was and from our understanding of Ephesians 5:19, Colossians 3:16. Most of the arrangements look standard, though I obviously didn’t look at each part in each song (shape notes would have made reviewing the harmony SO much easier!).
One very nice feature about this hymnal is that it also has songs written by Russian Christians, as well as the translated American songs. Often we don’t encourage “natives” to take ownership of singing praises – we just expect them to fall in love with songs that were written in styles popular here in the States some 100-150 years ago. Anyway, Kostya Zhegulin, a very talented musician, has contributed many of his own songs.
Many of the translations of the gospel songs and hymns are “standards” in the language of Russian Christians. I. S. Prokhanov, a Russian Christian leader some 100 years ago, translated many of these songs and those are now the “official” translations. The newer songs, of course, have only recently been translated, but at least the songs that have a way they’re “supposed” to read do read that way.
I own a few other Russian hymnals (seemingly from a Baptist background), but none of them comes close to the quality of this one, but as a book, but also in terms of content and quality.
Background: My parents moved to Russia as full-time missionaries in 1996. I stayed over there until 2002, when I returned to the US for school. Now I preach for a small congregation in West Texas. I am an instructor (sight reading, adult songleading) at The Singing School at Abilene Christian University, the oldest singing school in the county. Check out our website: singingschool.org .
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