G and Gavin

I have been a Lutheran organist and choir director for more years than I wish to count.
I have also had a years appointment at a large Catholic seminary to be their organist and
everything that was attached to the job, like train the cantors, etc. It was an eye-open-
er, in many ways. I am very glad to have had the chance to work with them.
The question being asked has no easy answer. It seems very strange to me that I have
NEVER heard a pastor even talk about this "problem" in all the years that I have gone
to church. If you ask them privately about this, you get some kind of a lukewarm
nothing to a something to suggest that you don't need to go there. I have never had
what I would call a definitive answer to the question. I think there are doctrinal
issues here that everyone hopes will just go away, and that is just not going to
happen. That being said, I have very close friends in the MS and I have even taken
Communion with them on occasion. A lot depends on the Pastor.
The question remains of the hymnal. When the Lutheran Book of Worship came out,
the MS was to be a full partner in its production. Somehow at the very last minute
things changed and even though their name in the first edition as part of the
whole "authorship", they pulled out at the last moment. As far as I know, we never
did get an honest answer to the reason. Again, it was just wind blowing over a lost
grave. The bad thing was, many of us were hoping that this would be the beginning
of a gradual joining together and the start of a dialogue to join the two branches
of this tree. When the ELCA came out with the newest hymnal in 2006, as far as I can
tell, the MS was not even asked about joining. Perhaps there was a polite letter
that went back and forth between the two church bodies, but the PIP never heard
anything about it. I really think the reason for the divide is more perceived in the
minds of the Pastors than anything else. Otherwise, why can't they explain it to the
congregations? Perhaps some of them don't really know or have had it explained
to them fully? I am at a loss to explain it to anyone either and I can't seem to get any
answers either.
Regarding the new hymnal:
Some people writing on this site seem to think it's the bees knees. but to us that
have to use it every week it is really lacking every where. Why are there no page
numbers in the Psalms? Do we really need 10 settings of the liturgy and why does
the hymnal have hymns that are not in 4 part harmony? And talk about St. Haugen,
we get the same drivel that the rest of you have to put up with. Then there are the
two books the poor organists have to use for the accompaniments. You have to be
"Arnold the Strong" to lift them on to the music rack and off. And the music rack
does not hold them both at the same time. Then there are "introductions" to some
of the hymns that you need to have a PhD in jazz rhythms just to get through. And
of course there is no indication in the hymnal that any of this is going to happen.
Even in some of the liturgical parts there are intros and the poor choirs or PIPs have
no idea of what is going on. Some of the liturgies sound like the old soap operas
that you used to hear on the radio years ago. The last hymnal that had any real
scholarship behind it was the Lutheran Book of Worship some thirty years ago, and
it can still hold its head far above lots in use today.
My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, you have my prayers and sympathy for the jobs
you do in the vineyards of His church. Everybody knows how to do our job better
than we do. I really wonder if they would do it for what we have to do it for?
Would we then get to make the same comments that they do? God chose very few
of us to do this job, and some of us wonder why He chose us. I think He saw
something there that we ourselves would never have seen. He also gave us gifts
to spread His glory and Word that we could help be His servants on this earth. I
can find no higher reason to do this work than "to the glory of God."

Gavin, I'm sorry to hear that your draft post was lost. One of the features in the new system is that it saves drafts of your text fairly often while you type them in. If there is a "My Drafts" button on the main forum page (above the top thread title), that should lead you to your saved drafts.