^ The Dirge Hymnal

Affirming Laudianism Hymns Ancient and Old

Singing hymns in Church today is often an irritating experience, especially if you find yourself singing from a Mayhew hymnal. Words altered: never a mention of ‘men‘. One writer tells us of a service in Oxford singing ‘Onward Christian Pilgrims, driving in a car’.

Enough of this! Pulp such nonsense!

Or obtain Dirge: Hymns and Songs to renew the Church of the past, today!

Dirge only prints hymns written prior to 1930, and in their original composition. In addition to the well loved and much sung, Dirge encourages the new, as well as the old, and offers hymns new to our own generation, but much loved by the past. Dirge is also an inclusive book, for children and all in society. Here are a few examples of verses from the many hymns included:

All Age Worship

Something for the family service?

Little children must be quiet,
When to Holy Church they go,
They must sit with serious faces,
Must not play or whisper low.
For the Church is God’s own temple
Where men go for praise and prayer,
And the Great God will not love them
Who forget His presence there.

Inclusivity

There are hymns too for social justice and equality!

God made thy cottage home so dear,
Gave store enough for frugal fare;
If richer homes have better cheer,
‘Twas God who sent it there

and

To the Holy Church we go,
The dear Church of high and low,
Where the poor man meanly dressed
Is as welcome as the rest.

Ecumenism

Here is an ideal verse to add to The Church’s one Foundation as Anglicans and Methodists get ever closer:

The good old Church of England!
With her priests throughout the land,
And her twenty-thousand churches,
How nobly does she stand!
Dissenters are like mushrooms,
That flourish but a day;
Twelve hundred years, through smiles and tears,
She has lasted on always!

Contemporary Issues

In fact there is no occasion or estate of person which cannot be raised to God in song. Here are apt verses concerning anti-social behaviour and our yob culture!

Ye Drunkards, ye Swearers,
Ye Muckworms of earth,
Repent and be sharers
In this Blessed Birth.
From Sin to release us,
That Yoke so long worn,
The holy Child Jesus
Of Mary was born.

Oppressors, Transgressors,
Of ev’ry Degree
And formal professors,
The worst of the three,
With tears of contrition
Your foolishness mourn;
To give your remission
Immanual’s born.