ATHABASCA - When the United Church of Canada releases its new hymn book in celebration of its 100th anniversary in 2025, it will be with the input of Athabasca minister Monica Rosborough.
About a month ago, Rosborough was notified she had been selected to be a part of the web content development subcommittee on the church’s Sing 2025 development committee, which, over the next five years, will help develop the new digital hymnal that will be used across the country as the church heads into its second century.
She is still a little shocked she was chosen to take part.
“The United Church of Canada will be turning 100 years old in 2025 and as part of that they wanted to pull together a group of people from across Canada that would also have an online Internet resource,” she said. “I’m over the moon, it’s a real honour.
“They sifted through a whole bunch of nominations to have a look at where people’s gifts and talents were and they asked me to accept the nomination to work on the committee for the online resources. I’m very excited about that. I wasn’t expecting this, but it is a great honour.”
Rosborough’s specific task for the Sing 2025 project will be thinking through what resources are going to be needed to take the church into the modern era while keeping it current, meaningful and fresh, she said.
“I’m fairly comfortable with techie stuff, and my first degree was actually in teaching music in the elementary school system. I also took a couple of courses, while I was becoming a minister, in music specifically … I’m trying to keep up with the times, but I don’t have Tik Tok yet,” she joked.
Plans are still in their infancy, but Rosborough suspects the new hymnal will be a collection of old and new songs.
“It will be something we can use in a variety of situations and circumstances, so I imagine it will have new songs that will be specifically written for that hymn book by some of our wonderfully-talented United Church musicians from across Canada and there may be an opportunity for a local musician to compose a hymn and submit it,” she said
As for what makes a good, quality hymn to be included in the new book, Rosborough’s background in music will surely be invaluable.
Music and song have the ability to shape moods and attitudes and using that power she hopes to contribute to a project that will stand the test of time going forward.
“For myself, in this difficult time, I am going to the songs, and the hymns too, that inspire me, keep me grounded and remind me of things that are life-giving, and it’s not always easy to find,” she said.
“When I was learning about what makes a good quality song for children, in my education course, it had to have an intuitive tune that was catchy, that had a very natural rhythmic flow and it should have intelligent, thoughtful and inspirational language and message.”
