ONWARD CHRISTIAN MODERNIZERS
"Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide," the old Episcopal hymn goes. Or went. At the church's triennial convention in New Orleans last week, 1,200 Episcopal bishops and delegates had their moment to decide, and they adopted the first revision of the official hymnal in 42 years. The commission that worked out the new texts (tunes come later) told the delegates that the 1940 edition had a disproportionate number of 19th century hymns, as well as several containing archaic or questionable language. James Russell Lowell's Once...
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