This year our annual event to celebrate the powerful role of music in Christian worship, Music Sunday, is on 14 June 2020.

Churches up and down the land, whether RSCM Members or not, were  encouraged to take part in this international celebration of the role music plays in the life of Christian worship.

In the words of composer John Rutter, a fellow of the RSCM and supporter of RSCM Music Sunday:  ‘Music spreads joy, something in short supply in our national life at the moment’.

This year we have commissioned Thomas Hewitt Jones to compose an anthem especially for the event.  He has set to music ‘Hymns and Psalms and Sacred Songs‘, words written by Timothy Dudley-Smith, the leading hymn writer. It is based on passages from Ephesians and Colossians, and refers to singing in the early church, and to Paul’s commendation that these local fellowships should sing when they met for worship.

Hugh Morris, Director of the RSCM, explains the thinking behind RSCM Music Sunday 2020: ‘Music Sunday is an opportunity to shine a spotlight on the way music is used in worship, and to celebrate the contribution of the many who lead and perform it. Whilst that of course includes choirs, and our choral heritage is something we celebrate, music in worship encompasses a diverse range of styles and forms, and we want to support these, too’.

‘The anthem we have commissioned from Thomas provides a fresh new contemporary resource. It’s an uplifting and rousing anthem with soaring melodies and rich harmonies. It is available in three versions: Full SATB and Organ; Unison and easy organ; and unaccompanied SATB Choir. There are also score and parts for flexible instrumental ensemble available. A performance of the SATB and organ version is available to listen to, and a recording of the organ part alone is available to download to aid rehearsal for those churches without an organist.

For more information on downloading or purchasing the Music Sunday anthem, click here.

Churches wishing to enhance their Music Sunday worship with the anthem Hymns and Psalms and Sacred Songs should visit the RSCM website and register their event on www.rscm.org.uk/music-sunday/

After the event it would be great to receive news of the use of the anthem, photographs and recordings; we would love to feature them in our magazine, Church Music Quarterly, and on social media, spreading good news stories of people coming together to celebrate church music.’