new GIA hymnals for our parish?
  • musicman923
    Posts: 239
    Hi Everyone,

    I'm looking for some help and options from fellow music director's regarding the idea of switching to the new GIA Worship IV hymnal. I currently have the GIA RitualSong hymnal (which I love!) and I also have the OCP Heritage missal which I use sparsely. The heritage missal is basically there for the congregation to use for the weekend readings and an occasional hymn here and there. Even though the HM (heritage missal) has respond and acclaim psalms, I have converted to using the Worship IV Gelineau settings and occasionally the Guimont Gather III edition settings. We have used the Heritage Mass setting as well as the Mass of the Christ the Savior (both OCP settings). For GIA settings, I've only used the new Community Mass setting starting the Easter season this year. I'll be using the gregorian chant mass parts setting starting for the advent and lent seasons of the next church year (starting this Advent 2013).

    I am looking to completely switch over to the GIA Worship IV hymnal in 2015. I know it's a whole year away but I need to start my journey now and will probably take a good amount of a year to get it going. Our parish usually orders the next year hymnals in the summer. (IE: We already ordered the Heritage Missal for 2014 last week!) I'm looking for pro's and positive ideas from fellow forum members on here as to why I should switch over to the hardcover Worship IV. I'm looking for help from a practical point of view not so much a music point of view. I'm going to need to do a presentation to the parish finance committee as to why this is a good idea for the parish from a financial point of view. Now, I have a pastor who supports me 100% as music director for the parish. He has yet to say no to any idea I've presented to him from a musical standpoint.

    I have thought of the idea of getting Gather III but I found is to close to the RitualSong which we already have and will continue to use along side the Worship IV. The Gather is not an option and I'm looking solely at the Worship IV.

    For those music directors who have the Worship IV already, how has your congregation responded to them?? Do you find some of the hymns to be oddly worded from a text point of view?? Are there somethings I'm not privy to regarding the Worship IV hymnal that I should know about??

    From a financial standpoint, it only makes sense to switch to a hardcover hymnal. It might cost a fair price the first year to the parish but from there on year after year it will save the parish money. I have been pricing out the cost of the Worship IV, it would be 15.50 a hymnal and our church gets roughly 300 or so hymnals bought a year. What would be a good way to help reduce the parish cost in the idea of a fundraiser to help offset some of the first year prices for the parish??

    Any help you can give on this topic would be appreciated. I have never had to do anything like this before and hoping that the parish finance committee will accept this idea from a monetary viewpoint and I can get the Worship IV for the parish I am music director for!
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,979
    We are switching to Worship IV from Ritual Song, and WLP missalettes used after the revised missal was implemented. Those missalettes are expensive! Worship IV has many of the traditional hymns we know from Ritual Song, probably a better collections of psalms than Ritual Song, and we are buying the edition with Sunday readings. My pastor insists on having as many things as possible in one book. Otherwise, I would get the St. Michael hymnal and separate readings and psalms. Negatives: Haugen/Haas stuff is still in Worship IV including Mass of Creation, which we all tired of long ago. But it does have the Schubert mass which we like.

    We looked at Vatican II but could not live with the limited number of hymns and the hymn layouts. Also, the pastor said too many of the hymns were unknown to the congregation. Otherwise, it is pretty good.
  • ContraBombarde
    Posts: 471
    We switched over to the Worship IV in Advent of last year. After having considered several other products, it was really the cost effective option. Overall, it would have saved us money within 3 years. There were some unfortunate complaints though, and that is that the hymnal is too heavy. Some of the older folks were having problems with holding the hymnal. So we had to order a separate missalette for the older crowd, but not as many as we used too.

    The other thing is, you will have to either post on the hymn board, the page/s for the readings, or place the page number in a bulletin. We have a projection system in the church, which I use much like a hymn board, and put the numbers up on the screen for the readings, and hymn #'s, if I am not using it for a hymn that is not in the hymnal.

    Overall, it's a decent hymnal. Not perfect, but certainly not bottom of the barrel either. Some of the hymns are a bit strange in their wording, and occasionally the poetry is a bit different, but over all, it's decent. It does have a lot of other hymn tunes that aren't always common within the Catholic church, such as Cwm Rhondda, which I happen to like, as well as a few other ones. I'm actually glad it included some other hymn tunes, as it keeps things interesting.
    Thanked by 1Chris Hebard
  • Fr. Jim Chepponis
    Posts: 220
    Musicman923,

    A few thoughts in response to some of your questions:

    Many parishes have had great success with parishioners donating a hymnal in memory of a loved one. If you ask $20 for a hymnal donation, for example, you might just offset the entire cost to your parish (including the initial shipping charge, accompaniment books, etc) if enough people participate. Here’s some information on that:
    http://www.giamusic.com/sacred_music/hymnals_fundraising.cfm

    GIA also has a generous financing option available:
    http://www.giamusic.com/sacred_music/hymnals_financing.cfm

    Here’s a cost comparison between a GIA hymnal and a disposable worship aid (missal/songbook combination):
    http://www.giamusic.com/sacred_music/hymnals_economical.cfm

    Final point…If there are hymns in your parish repertoire that are not in Worship IV, you might consider buying the adhesive plastic pockets that can be attached to the inside back cover of the hymnal, and printing a small hymnal supplement (with appropriate copyright permissions) that contains the additional music. I’ve done this at several parishes over the years, and the supplement won’t break the hymnal binding if the booklet isn’t too thick. You can get a lot of music into a rather small supplement. For example, if you use three folded pages of 8 ½” x 11” paper, you’ll have eleven usable sides (the twelfth side will be in the pocket). If a hymn fits on one page, that’s eleven extra hymns, of course. If you’re printing some psalm refrains or other short pieces, you can fit even more titles. See:
    http://www.giamusic.com/sacred_music/hymnals_auxilliaryresources.cfm

    I hope that the above information is helpful to you.
    Thanked by 3Adam Wood Chris Hebard Mike R
  • Musicteacher56
    Posts: 621
    We recently changed hymnals and offered congregants a chance to have one dedicated in the memory of a loved one and made quite a bit of money. It wasn't quite enough to cover the cost of all the hymnals, but we did offset some of it.
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Musicman923,

    I haven't seen RitualSong in years, and although I've heard about Worship IV, I've never used it. How, then, can I have anything useful to say?

    1) Disposable missalettes - the WLP stuff - give the impression of a disposable faith, and a lack of any long-term committment. Flighty parishioners don't help long-term plans.

    2) Compare the amount of money being spent per annum on the disposable stuff vs. the amount of money, amortized if you like, on a hard-back book.

    3) Since my school has been considering new textbooks for some courses for the coming year, I have urged "not merely different, but better". If Worship IV meets these criteria, sell the book that way. If not .... I suppose you could argue that at least it's not worse.

    4) Not to disagree with Father, but I wouldn't ever intentionally acquire debt for the purchase of these books. Your goal is to buy books, not be on a drug-dealer-like string with these companies.
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