2010 Conference of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada

I want to share my impressions of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada's 2010 Annual Conference, which was held the week before last on the campus of Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama.

The conference was held on the campus of Samford University. This is a particularly gorgeous campus, dating from the early 1950s but looking as if it were created in the 1700s. All of the buildings on campus reflect a red-brick with white limestone Colonial / Georgian / Federalist period architecture, not unlike the campus of the University of Virginia. It is a collection of finely conceived and executed academic buildings with steeples and domes reminiscent of architects such as Sir Christopher Wren and Thomas Jefferson, and places like Independence Hall and Colonial Williamsburg.

The A. Hamilton Reid Chapel is where most of our hymn festivals and plenary sessions were held. As as we gathered together for the start of the conference, the light was remarkable; it reminded me of the famous Constable painting of Salisbury Cathedral.

This year's theme was "Sing of Justice - Sing of Peace". All of the hymn festivals and plenary sessions were designed around this theme, as were many of the sectionals. These words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. served as inspiration for the week: "We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom." ("A Letter from Birmingham Jail", 1963).

For the opening hymn festival on Sunday, July 11th, our opening Hymn Festival was entitled "Free at Last: Spiritual Songs of Liberation", coordinated by HSUSC's president Mary Louise "Mel" Bringle, Andrew Donaldson and HSUSC's Executive Director Deb Loftis, with James Clemens at the piano and David Eicher at the organ. We began with the hymn "Deep in Our Hearts" by John Oldham and Ron Klusmeier, a hymn about our shared vision of unity in faith and mission. Many of the hymns were familiar favorites, including "I Want Jesus to Walk with Me", "Free at Last" and "We Shall Overcome" which left no one dry eyed. Imagine about four hundred musically enthusiastic people singing in SATB. We also sang spiritual songs of liberation from Central and South America, directed by Andrew Donaldson's joyous guitar leadership.

After the hymn festival, there were refreshments just outside the main door of the chapel. Looking up, one could see this nighttime view of the steeple..