''Together in Song: Australian Hymn Book II'' () was published in 1999. It is a book of 783

psalms The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament. The book is an anthology of B ...

hymns A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' ...

and spiritual songs for use in

Christian worship In Christianity, worship is the act of attributing reverent honour and homage to God. In the New Testament, various words are used to refer to the term worship. One is ("to worship") which means to bow down to God or kings. Worship in the N ...

in Australia and elsewhere. It is a significant revision of The Australian Hymn Book published 22 years earlier. It was created by an

ecumenical Ecumenism ( ; alternatively spelled oecumenism)also called interdenominationalism, or ecumenicalismis the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships ...

editorial committee chaired by Canon Dr. Lawrence Bartlett and containing representatives from the

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

Churches of Christ The Churches of Christ, also commonly known as the Church of Christ, is a loose association of autonomous Christian congregations located around the world. Typically, their distinguishing beliefs are that of the necessity of baptism for salvation ...

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

and Uniting churches. Major changes include modernising the texts (using

inclusive language Inclusive language is a language style that seeks to avoid expressions that its proponents perceive as expressing or implying ideas that are sexist, racist, or otherwise biased, prejudiced, or insulting to particular group(s) of people; and i ...

and reducing archaic language), removing hymns that had fallen out of use, emphasising psalms, and adding of more modern musical settings and worship songs. The book also reflects changes agreed by the

English Language Liturgical Consultation The English Language Liturgical Consultation (ELLC) is a group of national associations of ecumenical liturgists in the English-speaking world. Their work has been concerned with developing and promoting common liturgical texts in English and sha ...

in 1988. Canon Dr. Lawrence Bartlett describes the book as "Ecumenical in that it represents the liturgical insights of those churches represented on the Editorial Committee" and "Contemporary in that all the material, whether old or new, is presented so that today's worshippers can use it without embarrassment or confusion." The collection of hymns is intentionally international with material drawn from 48 countries. The addition of new songs has broadened the range of musical styles represented, spanning from

plainsong Plainsong or plainchant (calque from the French ; ) is a body of chants used in the liturgies of the Western Church. When referring to the term plainsong, it is those sacred pieces that are composed in Latin text. Plainsong was the exclusive for ...

to worship songs composed at Hillsong. The most represented hymnwriter is

Charles Wesley Charles Wesley (18 December 1707 – 29 March 1788) was an English Anglican cleric and a principal leader of the Methodist movement. Wesley was a prolific hymnwriter who wrote over 6,500 hymns during his lifetime. His works include "And Can It ...

with 41 hymns, while contemporary hymnwriters like Brian Wren has 24 hymns included,

John L. Bell John Lamberton Bell (born 1949) is a Scottish hymn-writer and Church of Scotland Minister (Christianity), minister. He is a member of the Iona Community, a broadcaster, and former student activist. He works throughout the world, lecturing in the ...

has 27 and Shirley Murray has 5. In some circumstances, where the editorial committee could not find a song that adequately fulfilled a need they wrote their own such as Shirley Ludgater's hymn about marriage as an act of creation: "When the light of first creation". One criticism of the book is that the use of inclusive language (noted by alt. after the author's name) has ruined the flow of many older hymns. The hymns are divided into sections reflecting theological themes or liturgical uses and are arranged chronologically within each section. The hymn book is available in harmony, melody line (with guitar chords), large print, software and audio CD editions. The harmony version contains multiple indexes of tunes, metres,

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

s and arrangers,

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

s and translators, texts based on

scripture Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central importance to their religious tradition. They often feature a compilation or discussion of beliefs, ritual practices, moral commandments and ...

passages, subjects, the church year, first lines and common titles (but not the guitar chords which appear in the melody edition). The melody edition omits some of these indexes. In 2017 it was announced that there would be no further printings of the hymnal as the publisher,

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...

, decided not to renew licence agreements with copyright holders upon their expiration in 2018.

Companion to Together in song

*Milgate, W. & Wood, H. D. (2006) ''A companion to Together in song : Australian hymn book II'', Sydney : Australian Hymn Book containing notes on the sources and history of each tune and hymn text, along with short biographies of all authors and composers.

References

External links

Australian Hymn Book
Protestant hymnals Catholic hymnals 1999 non-fiction books 1999 in Christianity 1999 in music Christianity in Australia {{RC-music-stub Anglican liturgical books

See also

Companion to Together in song

References

External links