It is exactly forty years ago this year that the Dutch Adventists started using their new hymnal (now mostly known as “the red hymnbook”). Its history was quite complicated, but when the LIEDBOEK VOOR DE ADVENTKERK was ready in 1982, the introduction in the churches went quite smoothly. Only a few congregations were hesitant to replace the old GEZANGEN ZIONS hymnal with the new one. But now, after forty years, the role of the hymnal has changed dramatically.

The Liedboek voor de Kerken–the ecumenical hymnal that most Protestant denominations in the Netherlands have now used for several decades–dates from 1973. Gradually the feeling arose in Protestant Netherlands that this hymnal was in need of a radical overhaul. In 2013–exactly forty years after its predecessor was introduced–the new ecumenical hymnal was a fact.

For some time now, I have felt that the Adventist Church in the Netherlands is also in urgent need of a renewed hymnal. But I must immediately admit that I have strong emotional ties with “the red book,” so that my opinion is far from objective. Many church members have noticed by now that, when I am invited to preach somewhere, and am asked to select a few appropriate hymns, I always limit myself to hymns from the official hymnal. There are two reasons for this. The first is simply a matter of taste. I like the traditional church hymns much better than most of the “revival songs”, songs of the “happy-clappy” variety, and most of the songs from the youth hymn book (the so-called “blue book”). Especially, the verses in which single words or phrases are almost endlessly repeated do not appeal to me. I recognize that the Corona-era has significantly increased the popularity of such songs, with all the streaming and YouTube services that replaced regular church services.

The second reason is, that I was very closely involved in the creation of our current hymnal. When, some 45 years ago, it was decided that the old GEZANGEN ZIONS was to be replaced, a committee was formed, in accordance with good Adventist practice. From the start I was a member of this committee. At that time, I was in charge of our church publishing house “Veritas”, and it was my job to make sure that the church would have a steady supply of hymnals. The committee soon came to the conclusion that we were setting ourselves an unnecessarily burdensome task. After all, a beautiful hymnal had just been created by the Dutch Protestant churches. Why couldn’t Adventists make use of that as well? A proposal to do so was, however, firmly rejected by the union board: we had to have our own Adventist collection of hymns and not a hymn book that was compiled by “others”. It was conveniently forgotten that the GEZANGEN ZIONS hymnal had actually been compiled by a Dutch Reformed minister, because at that time we did not have the necessary expertise, and that most of the hymns we had been singing for decades, were borrowed from non-Adventist sources.

The committee was disappointed, but we tried again. I negotiated with the interdenominational committee that dealt with the rights of the ecumenical hymnal, and a compromise finally emerged. Under certain conditions we were allowed to add about a hundred hymns that were popular in our church to this hymnal. That proposal also could not find favor with our national administrators. The committee then decided to dissolve itself, and since there were no copies of GEZANGEN ZIONS left in stock, I then set myself the task, with the staff of “Veritas,” to provide a new hymn book. After some time I did get some help from a few people. The cooperation of Rob Schouten was especially important (see the preface in the hymnal). Rob came from an Adventist family, and therefore knew the Adventist jargon. Having studied Dutch literature, he was an expert in the field of the Dutch language. In addition, he had musical talents and had already published several books of poetry. For about two years we met on a weekly basis to work on new or revised texts. I still have very good memories of that time.

All this perhaps explains why “the red hymn book” is still a very special book to me. But this does not take away from the fact that, in my opinion, the church is ready for a new hymnal. Undoubtedly, the local churches will continue to use several popular hymnals, but, perhaps we are now ready to consider also using the new ecumenical hymnal of 2013. There may be a few hymns that do not appeal to us as Adventists, but there is so much to choose from in this collection of hymns that, in my opinion, this can hardly be an objection! It would, I think, be an enormous enrichment for our worship services.

Just in the last few weeks, a survey of the preferences of churchgoers with respect to hymns for the worship service in various churches has been published. More on that next week.