Rowan Williams wants to ditch ‘bland’ hymns. Do we need to rediscover the ‘great classics’?

Lord Williams of Oystermouth says many of the hymns sung at weddings and funerals, including ‘All things bright and beautiful’, are comparable to “baby food”. But hymn scholar Dr Daniel Johnson says churches should be sharing the treasures of the hymn tradition with as much joy as possible

A debate over the place of hymns in our society was sparked last week when Lord Lisvane wrote the following letter to The Times, “We are fortunate in this country to have such a splendid repertoire of hymns…Why, then, do we have to suffer All Things Bright and Beautiful? It is chosen by about half the participants in the weddings I play for (though I am often successful in helping them to choose something better)…I find the saccharine doggerel, combined with the jingly tune (not that easy for congregations to sing, actually), deeply depressing — especially when there are so many wonderful alternatives.”

In a subsequent Times news story The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, now Lord Williams of Oystermouth, agreed there are many “great classics” and lamented how these had “fallen out of common memory”.