Communion Processionals – Revived

[Southern Comfort]

What is to stop people singing from a book as they process, and simply popping it under their arm or in a pocket as they receive?

Quite difficult to lift a chalice to your lips with a hymn book tucked under your arm.... Yes, it's possible, but the movement is constrained and can lead to accidents.

[Nick Baty]

What is to stop people singing from a book as they process, and simply popping it under their arm or in a pocket as they receive?

We don't use books – they're just not practical. Hard to tell people which verses you're singing.

When I introduce a new Communion Song, I ask the assembly to put down their service sheets and try without the safety net, usually making a joke of it. I can tell straightaway if it's going to work. And if – after trying it on two or three occasions – it's not taking off, I bin it!

We currently have around 15 Communion Songs with some working better than others.

[alan29]

What is to stop people singing from a book as they process, and simply popping it under their arm or in a pocket as they receive?

We don't use books – they're just not practical. Hard to tell people which verses you're singing.

When I introduce a new Communion Song, I ask the assembly to put down their service sheets and try without the safety net, usually making a joke of it. I can tell straightaway if it's going to work. And if – after trying it on two or three occasions – it's not taking off, I bin it!

We currently have around 15 Communion Songs with some working better than others.

I know what you mean about books..... narrow choice etc. But they do avoid the need to mess around with copyright on one hand and are a guard against Mass becoming the "Alan Johnson Music Hour" on the other - poor devils have to put up with my psalms as it is.
If folks can't tell which verse is being sung, my remedy would be to work with those who are leading the singing and polish up their diction.

[Nick Baty]

I know what you mean about books.....But they do avoid the need to mess around with copyright

Calamus licence covers just about everything!

If folks can't tell which verse is being sung, my remedy would be to work with those who are leading the singing and polish up their diction.

Sounds messy. Much better if people can see clearly what they are expected to sing.

But we're off-topic. I was looking for suggestions of items which work for the Communion Procession. And, if I'm honest, I don't see how the hymn form could possibly work, unless everyone is carrying a book which, as Southern Comfort says, is a tad impractical.

One of our home-spun Communion Songs, has the assembly humming along as soon as they hear the intro. But we've used it 40 times over the last three-year cycle – and it's coming up another five or six times during 2019. I fear the good folk of Everton will soon get fed up!