Best way to dispose of hymnals?
  • Splenda
    Posts: 12
    My parish has removed roughly 700 Gather II books from the pews and we are now printing weekly liturgy guides. Looking for any suggestions on the best place to send the other books? Just recycling? Any other ideas? I'm not imagining anyone will want them.
  • ServiamScores
    Posts: 2,888
    You’d be surprised. Assuming your parish’s name isn’t stamped on the front, other churches might indeed want the hymnals if they aren’t too beat up. Some smaller churches have difficulty affording hymnals.

    At the bare minimum you might want to email the closest DOM’s in your area to see if they need extras if they already have some.
    Thanked by 2Splenda MatthewRoth
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    If they were blessed (by a priest, with holy water) at some point, you would dispose of them as blessed objects.

    Thanked by 1Splenda
  • MNadalin
    Posts: 13
    A (somewhat) local convent took about 500 of our old Gather Comprehensives when we replaced them. We set a few dozen on a table in the vestibule for parishioners to take if they wanted one - maybe 10 were taken.
    Thanked by 1Splenda
  • Richard R.
    Posts: 776
    One parish has an established tradition of using old hymnals of a contemporary flavor to create the strepitus of Tenebrae, with all the young servers tasked to beat them on the pewback in the dark at the appropriate moment. Very dramatic, and a worthy repurposing, I think.
    Thanked by 8Andrew_Malton tomjaw CHGiffen MatthewRoth Nathan_the_Organist PhilipPowell trentonjconn francis
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,980
    Our former pastor, when he arrived at the parish, led a procession to the dumpster with all carrying a few copies of "Glory & Praise." In they went and happiness reigned in the land - except for the folk mass musicians. They groused for years about their repertoire being destroyed.
    Thanked by 4tomjaw CHGiffen MatthewRoth francis
  • davido
    Posts: 942
    700 will be a heck of a bonfire. Buy a whole lot of marshmallows…
    Thanked by 4tomjaw CHGiffen CharlesW francis
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    MNadalin,

    Why poison our convents with the wrong kind of prayer?
    Thanked by 3tomjaw MNadalin rich_enough
  • ServiamScores
    Posts: 2,888
    If nothing else you could email the diocesan DOM and ask them to put the word out that they are available for the taking. I played for a little country parish that couldn’t afford the upfront costs of hymnals. They were stuck with disposable missals (which themselves aren’t all that cheap, I know). I can imagine similar churches benefiting from having something hard bound, even if you didn’t want to sing all of what’s inside. Missalettes don’t have very many hymns in the back, so if that’s all you’ve got you’re very limited.
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,093
    Where I am, hardcover books cannot be put into recycling, but either go into trash or the book donation bin of the municipal public works department - that goes to a third party that sorts books for resale stream or destruction stream for reprocessing paper products.

    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    A reliquary is used to hold holy objects. What box do we use to keep unholy objects available for display but unable to harm?
  • PhilipPowell
    Posts: 116
    Our parish had a ton of old Worship hymnals that were stored in our old office building. When the building got torn down, the altar boys at boot camp removed them and played shot put into the dumpster from about 25 yards away.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,824
    An Aside:

    A good friend handed me a box of LUs which had been out of commission for decades. I distributed them to my choir a few months ago and they were ecstatic.
    Thanked by 6trentonjconn Chris Garton-Zavesky PaxTecum sdtalley3 tomjaw ServiamScores
  • SponsaChristi
    Posts: 402
    There is a traditional blessing of Bonfires for the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, which is June 23rd. I would say a good old fashioned book burning would be appropriate.
    Thanked by 2hilluminar tomjaw
  • MNadalin
    Posts: 13
    Chris, they asked for them. Got them out of my hands.
  • Reval
    Posts: 186
    If someone wanted them, I'd be tempted to razor out the most awful hymns.
    Also, in case someone does want to recycle books, it's possible to pull off the covers and recycle the pages.

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