Monday, August 25
"Inclusivized" Hymns and other nonsense............
Today we had combined choir rehearsal for the opening school year Mass, including practice of a version of "All Creatures of Our God and King" that replaces all instances of the phrase, "O Praise Him," with another "Alleluia." Besides simply being unnecessary and a shot at the faterhood of God, the change also causes the song to make no sense. The verses are addressed as a command to those "all creatures" to praise God; as far as I can tell, "Alleluia" is not an imperative verb, and certainly not with respect to the subject of the command. The whole affair is pretty ridiculous, especially since we do the real, non-inclusived version of this hymn at Easter each year - it seems that the whole student body (or faculty) can't deal with this. Appealing to the lowest common denominator, or most easily offended, is one of my pet peeves in youth ministry, and it does creep into the atmosphere here at times. In the first category, place our constant use of the "Mass of Creation" at schoolwide Masses, when there are plenty of other well-known or easily learnable settings out there.
Today we had combined choir rehearsal for the opening school year Mass, including practice of a version of "All Creatures of Our God and King" that replaces all instances of the phrase, "O Praise Him," with another "Alleluia." Besides simply being unnecessary and a shot at the faterhood of God, the change also causes the song to make no sense. The verses are addressed as a command to those "all creatures" to praise God; as far as I can tell, "Alleluia" is not an imperative verb, and certainly not with respect to the subject of the command. The whole affair is pretty ridiculous, especially since we do the real, non-inclusived version of this hymn at Easter each year - it seems that the whole student body (or faculty) can't deal with this. Appealing to the lowest common denominator, or most easily offended, is one of my pet peeves in youth ministry, and it does creep into the atmosphere here at times. In the first category, place our constant use of the "Mass of Creation" at schoolwide Masses, when there are plenty of other well-known or easily learnable settings out there.
![[SMMMHDH]](http://www.mgilleland.com/music/smmmhdh.png){kind=small}
