Do you remember what you sang in church 40 years ago today?

[Horseshoe_or]

Can you remember a hymn you sung 40 years ago? It was Sunday morning May 18, 1980 and I was the organist at First Baptist Church, Ellensburg, WA. As we sang the opening hymn "For the Beauty of the Earth," we could look out the windows and see gray snow falling. I guess mother nature was singing along with us.

[Philip Powell]

I am only 14 so, no, I have no idea. That's a really great story and I am glad to hear from a fellow Washington organist! I have actually been by your church although I am Catholic.

[myorgan]

As we sang the opening hymn "For the Beauty of the Earth," we could look out the windows and see gray snow falling. I guess mother nature was singing along with us.

Mount St. Helens? That must've been quite a contrast!

Our choir would have been singing something like Ye Shall Be Witnesses (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIeLfMgxMog). I would have been accompanying them with no orchestra.

Michael

[Organfella]

Hymns we sang forty years ago? Naaa I cannot but strangely enough, I distinctly remember what shoes I was wearing to church - sixty years ago! How's that for good memory?
Nico

[andijah]

40 years ago I was 6 years old. I remember attending church together with my father, but specific hymns... I have no idea.

[Warrentdo]

I remember singing 'will your anchor hold' about 40 years ago in Burnley Methodist church. Now a shutdown nightclub!

[lizny]

Can you remember a hymn you sung 40 years ago? It was Sunday morning May 18, 1980 and I was the organist at First Baptist Church, Ellensburg, WA. As we sang the opening hymn "For the Beauty of the Earth," we could look out the windows and see gray snow falling. I guess mother nature was singing along with us.

I'd have been in the junior choir then, but can't say what was up that particular sunday. In New York, Mt St. Helens was a news item, not weather - until the gorgeous sunsets a couple of days later.

[Peterboroughdiapason]

I certainly don't know about that particular Sunday, but 40 years ago I was the assistant organist in St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin and "St Patrick's Breastplate" was the high point of the St Patrick's Day service each year. I do remember playing "Make me a channel of your peace" for the first time in a broadcast service from a church in Dublin about then and not realising that it ends with a verse, not the chorus: embarrassment and a tasteful (?) little coda!

[ChristopherDB113]

Christ the Lord Has Risen Today, Angels We Have Heard On High, Oh Come Oh Come Emmanuel, are the only ones that come to mind.

Pardon if I digress but these were played on what I now know was a Rodgers of early to mid 70's vintage. Two manuals, probably had a few ranks of real pipes to one side of the choir loft, and to the right of the couplers were several 'gauges' or vertical columns of lights to indicate swell and crescendo levels. Maybe someone will know the model number.