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7

'Jesus loves me, this I know…' 1

The Catechistic Role of Sacred Song


The previous chapter argues the case for the whole of the assembly to be enabled to actively participate in congregational song. Such participation is particularly important for young people, given the power of song to impart the truths of the Christian faith 2. Recognising and harnessing the power of sacred song for the advancement of faith in young people is indeed the very essence of this project.


'Music has the capacity to be an educational vehicle.' 3
As previously discussed 4, sacred music is an extremely potent medium. To teach children sacred songs is to furnish them with one of the essential tools of Christian worship, for in teaching these songs one is also teaching both the doctrine and praxis of the faith. The Report of the Archbishops' Commission on Church Music recommends '…that the children might learn music which breeds in them a 'liking for' the Church's worship. As well as hymns, they should be taught canticles, psalms, responses and amens…' (Archbishops' Commission on Church Music 1992 p21). Teaching such a comprehensive body of song fosters the spirituality of young people, allowing them to develop a familiarity with the culture of church worship and, it is hoped, a lifelong affinity with the church. 'Turn a child the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it' (Proverbs 22:6).

Sadly, the children I studied are not being taught anything like the breadth of repertoire suggested above. The schools' collective worship relies heavily on contemporary children's hymns, and though seventy-eight percent said they sing traditional hymns, in practice it would appear these are limited to the small selection included in Come and Praise 5 (Marshall -Taylor & Coombes 1990). Only one school mentioned the use of psalms. None of the respondent schools are singing canticles, responses or any of the music of the mass. The situation in the churches is no more encouraging. In seventy percent of the churches observed, the children spend the majority of the service in Sunday School, where the musical diet (if there is any singing at all) consists almost exclusively of children's songs that are not usually included in the main Sunday service. This is a great shame, for to limit a child's musical exposure to such ditties is to offer a rather one-dimensional view of Christian worship, a view which may not appeal to all children, and certainly does not aid their integration into normal Sunday worship. If young people are to be encouraged to remain a part of the body of Christ they must be allowed - and enabled - to sing the song of their wider church community, whether they understand it or not; for a community is defined by its song, and the story that song tells.


'Tell me the old, old story of Jesus and his love' 6

    'From the simplicity of a beach mission to the elaboration of a great liturgical ceremony every act of public worship has at its heart the telling of an old story. And the purpose of the service is to incorporate the participants in that story, to make them severally actors in its continuation. It is the sharing in common stories that makes any community what it distinctively is, children and neophytes must learn them, and the identity of the group is reaffirmed by their constant repetition' (De Waal 1982 in Stevenson, ed. 1982 p109).
The sacred story of the Christian faith is embodied in hymnody, psalms and canticles. In singing together we learn the story, tell the story, and become part of the story, agents of its continuation. We may answer God's call to 'Sing a new song' 7 but the story itself does not change, 'for to change the story is to change the community' (De Waal 1982 in Stevenson, ed. 1982 p109).

One of the reasons that fairy tales are recognised as key to a child's psychological development is because they offer a rich tapestry of easily identifiable interwoven themes - always encompassing the central theme of good triumphing over evil - from which the child is free to work out his or her own interpretation 8. Sacred song can operate similarly, allowing us to internalise and interpret the central themes of the Christian story according to our own unique perspective. This feature is of great importance.

    'Christian education is not the communication of correct views about what the various works and words of Jesus might mean; rather it is the stocking of the imagination with the icons of the works and words themselves. It is most successfully accomplished, therefore, not by catechisms that purport to produce understanding, but by stories that hang the icons, understood or not, on the walls of the mind' (Capon 1996).
Sacred song is a rich source of such 'icons', providing young people with the raw material that will 'allow them to work with their own experience, and yearnings, to speculate and to wonder, and (in their own way) to build a conscious, articulate faith' (Pritchard 1992 p50). In this way, hymns 'serve as a sort of catechism' (Musica Sacrae Disciplina 1955 article 37 in Hayburn 1979 p350).


'Music is… an aid to memory'. 9
Hymns are a powerful teaching aid, as unlike sermons, people remember the texts they sing. 'They will remember such texts because, unlike sermons, the same combination of words will be used on many occasions. And, unlike sermons, the words will be set to a tune, both of which aid memory' (Bell 2000 p57). Thus remembered, a song that sticks in the mind can provide the worshipper with spiritual sustenance during the week 10. The likelihood of such internalisation is, of course, increased by repetition, but this repetition, whilst generally agreeable to children 11, is absent from many children's experience of church due to the amount of time spent in Sunday School. For many Christians, however, the repetition and subsequent internalization of prayers and sacred songs, is significant in aiding the anabatic-katabatic dialogue.

    'Repeated words and forms of praise and prayer become embedded in the consciousness, available to us whenever and wherever we choose to use them. So the frequent repetition of Scriptures, psalms, canticles and prayers in our regular worship gives us a working knowledge of daily faith - learned by heart, for use from the heart. They become an active part of the conversation we have with God speaking to us as God's living Word at the same time as we are using them to speak to him' (Earey & Myers 2001 p62).

Given the dialogical function of internalised texts, song texts are formative of a child's theology.
'People learn more theology from what they sing than from what they hear preached' (Bell 1996 in Maries et. al, 1996 p46). The young people observed for this study heard very little preaching - in all but one 12 of the churches observed, the great majority, if not all, the young people were absent during the sermon. More important, however, in the light of John Bell's comment, is that across the study, the majority of the young people missed out on the majority of singing that happened in church. Here is not the place to argue the value of what is or isn't taught in Sunday School, save to say that in the light of the above, what is sung in Sunday Schools is of great significance. If young people are not learning their faith community's songs and the attendant theology through being part of the assembly, then the songs that are sung in school collective worship and in Sunday School become their primary theological referents. 'Many of a child's ideas about Jesus [God] are formed from singing songs about Him' (Haystead 1995 p110). Frequently repeated 13 and subsequently internalised, such songs 'are effective in influencing children's concepts and tend to become authoritative definitions' (Haystead 1995 p110). The content of these songs, then, is critical, for 'what we sing shapes the way we understand and think of God' (Bell 2000 p59).


'Music has a powerful effect on children long after childhood.' 14
The songs learned in childhood remain with the child, forming part of the bedrock of any subsequent adult faith.

    'What we learn in childhood we retain all our life…the images of God we receive from such songs will determine our faith and theology. That means that whenever anyone teaches a child a hymn or religious song, they may be preparing that child to meet his or her Maker' (Bell 2000 p42).
The whole practice of the Christian faith is essentially a preparation for meeting one's Maker, for at its heart is the promise of salvation and eternal life to all believers. Sacred songs and the theology encompassed therein are active in that preparation. It is interesting to note that not so long ago, when infant mortality rates were higher in this country than they are today, children's hymn books were peppered with songs that talked of the end of earthly life and the hope for what lies beyond 15. Equivalent collections today concentrate far more on praising God, and God's presence in the world - there is little mention in modern children's songs that heaven is a place they might sooner, rather than later, end up. Junior Praise (Burt, Horrobin, & Leavers (eds.) 1997) even goes as far as removing the verse from 'Jesus loves me, this I know' that alludes to a child's death from sickness 16. Yet, like it or not, death is life's only certainty and it is those facing death that most need to know and hold on to the Christian hope. John Bell writes about how some elderly people, no longer able to read hymn texts, are able to recall and enjoy singing the songs they learned in childhood. The hymns they learned seventy to eighty years previously are still with them, serving and nurturing their faith (Bell 2000 p42).


'Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me.' 17
This chapter has sought to contextualise children's hymns as agents capable of forming, shaping and perpetuating the Christian faith. Songs learned in childhood not only instruct and shape the developing faith of the child, but become part of the core of adult faith, and a source of lifelong spiritual sustenance. Children's songs, therefore, should never be viewed as a form of entertainment, but as valuable companions on the journey that is Christian life, for 'through song, children carry the word of God with them in their hearts' (Pottebaum et. al. 1992 p32).



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  1. 'Jesus Loves Me, This I Know' - Words: Anna Warner (1820- 1915) Music: William Batchelder Bradbury (1816- 1868), in Scull, H.T. (musical ed.) & Evans, T (illustrator) (1952) The Golden Book of Children's Hymns. London: Blandford Press, p11. Back to text
  2. Music is able to 'teach both doctrine and religious principles' (Rendler 1994 p27) and possesses 'considerable potential for evangelism' (Archbishops' Commission on Church Music 1992 p46). Back to text
  3. Winter 1984 p204 Back to text
  4. see Chapter 1 - Introduction (p3-7) and 'I will sing the Wondrous Story - The Significance of Sacred Song' (App.p22-25). Back to text
  5. Of the 149 songs in Come and Praise, only 29 (19%) could be described as traditional hymns (either metrical hymns, or more modern hymns that have been admitted to the pages of hymn collections containing largely metrical hymns). A complete list of the contents of Come and Praise, with the traditional hymns highlighted, can be found in the appendices, App.p134-139. Back to text
  6. 'Tell me the old, old story' - Words: Arabella Hankey (1834-1911) Music: William Doane (1832- 1915), number 227 in Burt, P., Horrobin, P. & Leavers, G. (eds.) (1997) Junior Praise. London: Marshall Pickering Back to text
  7. 'That this is a divine command and not a human option can be gleaned from the fact that the words Sing a new song! do not appear just once in the Bible, but are explicitly stated in Psalms 33, 40, 96, 98, 144 and 149. Echoes or intimations of God's expectation can also be found in Exodus, Numbers, Judges, Chronicles, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zephaniah, Matthew, Acts, Philippians, James and Revelation' (Bell 2000 p83). Back to text
  8. see Bettelheim, Bruno (1976) The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. London: Penguin - the key text in this field. Back to text
  9. Archbishops' Commission on Church Music 1992 p57 para.136. Back to text
  10. 'So the music used in church on Sunday can provide material for the worshipper during the week. A snatch of a canticle may be hummed and pondered, or a fragment from a chorus, or a phrase from a hymn' (Archbishops' Commission on Church Music 1992 p57, para.136). Back to text
  11. 'Music at church is a powerful means for enjoyable and repeated learning. A child's enjoyment of a song grows by having repeated opportunities to hear and sing it' (Haystead 1995 p76). Back to text
  12. This church was holding its Harvest Festival on the day the research team observed. Contrary to the usual pattern of worship, the young people remained in church for the whole service, rather than going out to Sunday School. Had we visited on a more normal Sunday (as was my intention - I had expressly asked to see a normal Sunday service when I booked the observation date), then the majority of the young people would have been absent for the sermon in all the churches studied. Back to text
  13. Though repetition will certainly aid internalisation, some songs, particularly those of a repetitive nature with few words or a catchy chorus, do not take more that one singing to stick in the mind. Back to text
  14. Pottebaum, Freeburg & Kelleher 1992 p97. Back to text
  15. A selection of these can be found in the appendices, App.p142-152. Back to text
  16. 'Jesus Loves Me, This I Know' - Words: Anna Bradbury (1827- 1915) Music: William Batchelder Bradbury (1816- 1868), number 140 in Burt, P., Horrobin, P. & Leavers, G. (eds.) (1997) Junior Praise. London: Marshall Pickering Back to text
  17. from, 'Jesus Loves Me, This I Know' - Words: Anna Warner (1820- 1915) Music: William Batchelder Bradbury (1816- 1868), in Scull, H.T. (musical ed.) & Evans, T (illustrator) (1952) The Golden Book of Children's Hymns. London: Blandford Press, p11. Back to text
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