Course Information
The Center for Congregational Song is sponsoring a eight-session online course on planning hymns and songs for liturgies during January and February 2025. Sessions will be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays from Noon to 1:30 pm ET beginning on January 14 and concluding on February 6, 2025.
This course is intended for pastors, musicians, and others who do not hold church music and/or theology degrees or who may have missed this area of study. Registration will be $175 for members, $225 for non-members, and $275 for a pastor-musician team serving the same congregation.
Required Materials
- Sing With Understanding (3rd edition), edited by C. Michael Hawn.
- One of the following hymnals, or another denominational hymnal approved in advance by the instructor:
- Gather (4th Edition, 2016)
- One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, (2018)
- Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal (2013)
- Celebrating Grace (2010)
- The Baptist Hymnal(2008)
- Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006)
Instructor
The primary instructor will be Jonathan Hehn, OSL.
Jonathan Hehn, OSL, is a musician and liturgist currently serving as Choral Program Director and Organist as well as a Term Assistant Professor of Sacred Music at the University of Notre Dame. He is a brother in the Order of Saint Luke and holds degrees in music (BM, DM) from the Florida State University and theology (MSM, MA) from the University of Notre Dame. Additional time was spent at the Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. Jonathan has won prizes in both regional and national competitions in organ performance and remains active as a performer and organ clinician. A scholar in the area of sacred music and liturgy as well, Jonathan has presented at both national and international conferences, and his written work has appeared in Worship, The American Organist, The Hymn, These Days, Call to Worship, Sacramental Life, and other print and online periodicals. He currently edits Doxology, a quarterly, peer-reviewed journal of worship and the sacramental life published by OSL Publications. Jonathan resides in South Bend, Indiana with his wife, three children, and a smattering of pets. A passionate practitioner, writer, and thinker, you can find out what he’s currently up to on Facebook and Instagram.
Course Dates
Tuesday, January 14, 2025
Thursday, January 16, 2025
Tuesday, January 21, 2025
Thursday, January 23, 2025
Tuesday, January 28, 2025
Thursday, January 30, 2025
Tuesday, February 4, 2025
Thursday, February 6, 2025
Course Description
This course will explore the many genres and uses of congregational song among various traditions of Christian worship. Through a mixture of lectures, readings, and seminar-style presentations, students will explore two primary planning strategies for congregational song in the liturgy: a so-called “formative” approach, and a “progressive solemnity” approach. Over the course of eight weeks, students will consider the appropriate balance of these approaches vis-à-vis their own community’s and/or denomination’s liturgical theology, musical tradition, and pastoral need.
