GS 1986 ARTICLE 189
New Melody, Apostles’ Creed
Committee 4 presents:
A. MATERIAL
- – Agenda, VIII, B, 4 Letter from the Church at Coaldale re alternate melody for Hymn 1.
- B, 5 Letter from sr. D. Jansen re melody of Hymn 1.
B. OBSERVATIONS
- 1. Both the Church at Coaldale and sr. D. Jansen propose an alternate melody, composed by D. Zwart, Jr., for Hymn 1.
- 2. The Church at Coaldale states that “both the Standing Committee for the Book of Praise and General Synod of Cloverdale of 1983 failed to reckon with a previous Synodical decision of the General Synod of Smithville of 1980, Acts, Art . 122.”
- 3. The wording given along with the submitted melody is the ” previous text” of the Apostles’ Creed.
- 4. Synod has decided (Acts, Art. 101) to “instruct the Standing Committee for the Book of Praise to insert the word ‘Christian’ in Hymn 1A if this is possible.”
- 5. The present Hymn 1A is the “previous text” of the Apostles’ Creed.
C. CONSIDERATIONS
- 1. Hymn 1B is evidence that the General Synod of 1983 took the consideration of the General Synod of 1980 into account. namely, that “an alternate melody for Hymn 1 is desirable, since there still are complaints about the existing one as being too ‘gregorian’ ” (Art. 122, C, I, 4, a, p. 85). However, Hymn 1B is un suitable as a replacement of the previous Hymn 1.
- 2. The 1980 General Synod adopted a revised text for the Apostles’ Creed (Acts, Art . 107) which was amended by the 1983 General Synod (Acts, Art. 70) and this “new text” should be used.
- 3. The “new text” of the Apostles’ Creed does not appear to fit the melody composed by D. Zwart, Jr.
D. RECOMMENDATION
Synod decides.
- 1. to pass on this melody (cl. Observation 1) to the Standing Committee for the Book of Praise so that they may consider if it can be adapted to the ” new text” or whether a new melody can be found for this “new text;”
- 2. to instruct the committee to report back to the next general synod.
The recommendations are ADOPTED.