Current hymnody projects

[Haruo]

As always I have a number of hymnal-and-hymn-related projects going. The big one this year is a worship resource (working title: Evergreen Sings) which I hope to bring out by MLK Day 2014 in celebration of the tenth birthday of the Evergreen Region of ABC.

With the passing of my accompanist (and Fremont's organist) Verne Eke last July, and the hours of my current employment situation, I haven't been able to work much towards another Evergreen Hymn Sing, but I do have a couple of projects more or less on hold in that department, namely a Maritime Hymn Sing (program of hymns and religious songs of the sea in a variety of ways: Noah, Jonah, Leviathan, Galilee, Exodus, Navy Hymn, Crossing the Bar, Love Lifted Me, Ville du Havre, etc. etc.), and a second edition of "Foot-Stomping Hymns".

And I have decided to go to Cambridge (England) in July of 2015 for the joint meeting of the hymn societies. (Once every five years, there is a joint meeting of the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland, the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, and the Internationale Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Hymnologie.) I intend to convoke a subforum or a side-forum on Esperanto hymnody, focusing 1) on Cambridge as the birthplace of the Esperanto hymnal (Ordo de Diservo, the first Esperanto hymnal, was published in Cambridge in 1907 in conjunction with the 3rd world congress of Esperanto); 2 the life and works of , one of the first major Esperanto hymn-writers, who died in 1918 [i.e. the centennial of whose death will occur before the next joint meeting], and 3 British contributions to Esperanto hymnody, including the works of , who died in 1970, and of William J. Downes, who died in Cambridge in 1987.

I also hope, in time for the Cambridge convention, to be able to publish the first multilingual/Esperanto Fasola shapenote tunebook, working titled Tutmonda Harpo.

And of course I am constantly working on adding to and enhancing the quality of the database at ; currently I'm most actively working on adding/upgrading the database for the (2006), (3rd ed., 2009), (1941; joint Northern Baptist/Disciples of Christ hymnal that I was raised on), and the (Hope, 1926).