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Rating: 
Summary: Four Stars, and a Half. (Good Resource, but.......)
Review: This is a great hymnal, that was thoughtfully produced, and obviously had a huge amount of time dedicated to its production. Presbyterians now have a hymnal that goes straight through the liturgical year, from Advent to Pentecost/Whitsunday, and beyond. This hymnal also contains all the Psalms, so essential to tradition Presbyterian/Reformed Worship, set to music.The redeeming quality of the Psalms offsets the fact that many words were to changed for "inclusiveness". I do not always have a problem with accepting everyone into the church, but when great hymns are changed from their original text I wonder... For example hymn 262 reads "God of the Ages, Whose Almighty Hand", when D.C. Roberts wrote "God of Our Fathers, Whose Almighty Hand" in 1876 as our National Hymn. Little things like this make me wonder how true other less-well known hymns were translated. Also included are a number of hymns in foreign tongues, such as Native American Languages, and Korean. This are wonderful additions to congregations with large numbers of members who are of different ethnic origins, but I attend an all-white church, not because we do not welcome people of other races but simply because the community in which I live is close to 99% white, and minorities have teir own strong churches locally, therefore these hymns are useless to us, and could have been replaced by some older hymns that are trditional favorites. All in all, this is a good hymnal and does remain true to God's will, but I much prefer "The Hymnbook" of 1955 or "The Hymnal" of 1933 or "The Trinity Hymnal". These books contain many more common hymns that many of us who were reared in the Presbyterian Church, or any other Protestant denomination, would recognize. I guess that if we were truly Presbyterian we would only sing Psalms- acapella, but I think hymnwriters, offer everyone a better chance to praise and worship God.
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