Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-Book

The Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-Book was the first official English-language hymnal of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, then called the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and other States. It was published in 1912 by the synod's publishing house, Concordia Publishing House, in St. Louis, Missouri.

Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-Book
Commissioned byEvangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and other States
Approved forEvangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and other States
Released1912
PublisherConcordia Publishing House
Pages650
No. of Hymns543
PsalmsYes
Service musicYes
 Kirchengesangbuch fuer Evangelisch-Lutherische Gemeinden ungeaenderter Augsburgischer Confession The Lutheran Hymnal 

The adoption of the Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-book was part of the transition of the synod from the use of German to English. Since its founding in 1847, the synod had used the Kirchengesangbuch fuer Evangelisch-Lutherische Gemeinden ungeaenderter Augsburgischer Confession (Church Hymnal for Evangelical Lutheran Churches of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession), compiled and edited by C. F. W. Walther (the synod's first president) and a group of other pastors.[1]

By the late 1800s, the need for an English hymnal had become apparent. Walther himself recommended the Hymn Book for the Use of Evangelical Lutheran Schools and Congregations, which had been edited by Professor August Crull of Concordia College in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and published in 1879 by the Norwegian Lutherans in Decorah, Iowa. Other English hymnbooks that were used especially for outreach included Lutheran Hymns: For the Use of English Lutheran Missions (1882), Hymns of the Evangelical Lutheran Church: For the Use of English Lutheran Missions (1886), and Hymns for Evangelical Lutheran Missions (1905).[1]

Professor Crull assembled and edited a new hymnal, the Evangelical Lutheran Hymn Book, and presented it to the English (Evangelical) Lutheran Conference of Missouri, who published it in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1889. That conference eventually merged into the Missouri Synod as its English District in 1911. A later edition of this collection of hymns with accompanying music and with the slightly altered name of Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-Book was then published by Concordia Publishing House in 1912 as the first official English hymnal of the synod.[1]

The hymnal was later often referred to as the "old green hymnal" due to the color of its binding. Originally containing 543 hymns, it underwent significant expansion prior to the publishing of The Lutheran Hymnal in 1941.

See also

References

  1. Schalk, Carl. "A Brief History of LCMS Hymnals". Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. Retrieved February 1, 2014.
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