to enjoy certain hymns, even though I am not a Christian ?

[vienna1981]

Lyrically, hymns are largely meaningless because of their subject matter. However, there are some very fine tunes to be found within. I like the commonly known stuff such as All Things Bright And Beautiful, Immortal Invincible and The Lord Is My Shepherd (we had the latter at my mum's funeral).
My favourite, however, is Abide With Me. The melody is gorgeous. But am I a hypocrite to have a fondness for something I don't believe in ?

Also, do Amazing Grace and How Great Thou Art count as hymns. The latter strikes me as an African American spiritual. I don't know if it is . Thankyou.

How Great Thou Art was originially Swedish, OP, and it's meant to be faster than it's usually played - more of a swing than a walking pace.

I'm not a fan of a lot of Christmas carols because of the mawkish Victorian sentimentality and the fact that a lot of them are absolute dirges (I loathe One In Royal David's City for example). Other hymns can be incredibly uplifting or quite emotional, it's all down to taste. In the days when I did go to church the one that would always get me was When I Survey The Wondrous Cross, especially sung kneeling on the Good Friday morning service after the dramatised reading of the gospel. The theatre and drama of the Anglican church especially can be overlooked at times, but when it's done right it really can get you in the gut.

I quite like a fair number of Charles Wesley's hymns - And Can It Be is a favourite, Love Divine, All Loves Excelling, Hark, The Herald Angels Sing. This may be because they are more uplifting and optimistic than most. Wesley really had a knack with words. I love Jerusalem as a hymn as well, although William Blake's theology was a bit on the dodgy side.

For anyone who likes folk type tunes for their hymns, a modern hymn writer to check out is John Bell of the Iona Community, who uses a lot of traditional music from around the world in his work. He has a strong social justice streak as well which comes out in a lot of his hymns.

*Once In Royal David's City

Our primary school choir singing The Servant King reduces me to tears every time.

Love a good hymn.

I don't believe in god in a conventional sense but I do believe in trying to be a better person. And enjoying any spiritual moments wherever they present themselves. Love singing and listening to hymns. Yoga has its foundations in Buddhism but that doesn't mean that anyone can't enjoy it and appreciate it.

Hymns are wonderful! I find I can sing along to most of the traditional ones even though I have never been a regular church goer. I wonder if they are somehow ingrained in the population as a collective memory from generations of compulsory church attendance :)

Love all the old standards mentioned here. Also very fond of Be Thou My Vision though it's not so well known and the only half decent recording on YouTube is of Michael Ball crooning away. Give me a full choir, darnit!

Also a sometime chorister and I also love a good anthem. Finzi's "God is Gone Up" is spectacular, Ascension is one of my favourite festivals.

YY to people being able to be cultural Christians.

He who would valiant be
There is a green hill faraway

vienna

funny you say that .. I do have a yearning for church sometimes. Can't bring myself to go though

Taxi4ballet Why Should the Devil have all the good music is a Cliff Richard song!

I'm the same- love a good hymn but am not religious at all.

My favourite is Make Me The Channel Of my Peace
Also love Morning Has Broken.

We had Dear Lord and Father of Mankind at our wedding as I love the tune. No idea what the words are.

There are some beautiful Welsh ones too. Efengel Tangnefydd, Calon Lan and Arglwydd Dyma Fi for example. My Welsh is a bit ropy so I only have a rough idea of the meaning.

I too like Morning Has Broken. It's the first record I play in the morning each New Year's Day.

As a teen (and very much lapsed c of e and a bit of an agnostic) I went along with a friend to her Baptist church,knowing the potential for some good hymns. A few weeks into going I remember the minister saying in a sermon how we shouldn't sing the hymns if we truly didn't believe the words.i am sure that isn't the whole Baptist ideology, but it put me right off going. I still consider myself an agnostic, but I find singing hymns and religious music(have been in a number of choral societies where the repertoire is predominantly religious) can be deeply moving. Not sure if it is the words or the melody, but i still find it a slightly odd contradiction that I feel so comfortable singing hymns, but not being in church in general.

I went to a wedding at a Baptist Church years ago. I hated it. Never felt so out of place in all my life. I didn't recognise a single hymn. It was more like a cabaret than a wedding. The minister dressed like an insurance broker. All very weird.
As I said I'm not religious but give me an Anglican service with traditional hymns any day.
Abject apologies to any Baptists out there.

I love belting out hymns though I am silent during prayers as I'm a non-believer. I wish there were more church weddings to attend - maybe I'll become one of those who hangs around parish churches to attend strangers' weddings

Oh, but YABU to like All Things Bright and Beautiful - it's awful!

Atheist here. My Dad managed to sneak Amazing Grace into my secular wedding because I love it and they weren't going to allow it. I had a bagpiper!

I also love The one, "for those in peril on the sea". So sad. Especially if you have Naval family and friends.

nice playlist here

The Cof E doesn't have all the good hymns. 'I the Lord of Sea & Sky' is a beautiful, as is 'Be not Afraid', both Catholic in origin AFAIK. 'Make Me a Channel of your Peace' is based on the words of St Francis of Assisi, so I always count it asCatholic. Agree that a good sing song in church is fab.

Totally atheist here, but also love 'Guide me thou, o great redeemer', and 'Thine be the glory, risen conquering son', which I chose for my mother's funeral, only to find that some tone-deaf idiot had 'modernised' the words, and now it clanks rather than flows.
Also love the Mozart requiem.

At primary school we 'sang':

The Golden Cockerel

The Hammer Song (not even a hymn )

When A Knight Won His Spurs

Sing Hosanna

All Things etc.

Join With Us To Sing God's Praises. Even to the nine year-old me it was way too happy clappy . Dreadful evangelistic nonsense.

Oh, I had forgotten about 'I the Lord of Sea & Sky'. Thanks for the reminder MissPenelope, that is a beautiful hymn.

Oh gosh......you've just reminded me of the Golden Cockerel !!!! Loved that.....and I just remembered all the words