This Is Our Song

Women have made an amazing, creative, and prolific contribution to hymnody through the centuries of Christian worship. Excluded from liturgical commissions and denied other opportunities for involvement in the worship of the churches, women were able to express and influence spirituality in the writing of hymns. This influence spreads across the whole range of hymn-writing, including writing for children, which was at one time seen as women's natural place, but also the introduction of new voices through translations; engagement in social campaigns such as temperance and the abolition of slavery; mission and evangelism; and the general development of worshipping life. However, with the exception of the nineteenth century, the voices of women have been largely silenced or marginalized. The "Hymn Explosion" of the 1960s onward almost completely ignored women's writing, and there has only recently been something of a recovery. There is much more to Our Song than people think! This book opens up women's writing from the beginnings of Christianity, through the Middle Ages, the development of printing and the rise of popular hymnody to the present day. Living hymn-writers add their voices in a series of biographical "stories," which complete the overarching story of Our Song.