We're delighted that one of the most popular resources we've made available since the start of the pandemic has been the weekly music selections provided in collaboration with St Martin's in the Fields and Music Director Andrew Earis.
As we have had hundreds of hymns and worship songs recorded exclusively for the Resource Hub, we are now able to move from offering weekly changing collections to permanent seasonal collections.
This means you'll have full access to a range of music, and is a more sustainable way to continue to serve the Church with a wide variety of tracks that have been recorded over the past few years.
What's changing?
Up until now we have been removing and replacing tracks each week. We will switch to building up seasonal collections that, once published, will be permanently available.
We will however aim to refresh the permanent collections from time to time, to give variety and reflect the three-year lectionary cycle.
We clearly mark each track so you can tell what you can use depending on if your church has any music licences. Many tracks are Public Domain and available to all:
- Music for each of the key seasons in the church year (Advent, Christmas, Lent, Holy Week, Easter etc.)
- Music for other Sundays of the year (for these we are gradually building a three-year cycle of music to line up with whether it is lectionary Year A, B or C)
- 'Extra collections' including mass settings and music for weddings, funerals and memorial services (we have expanded to include hymns, Taize chants, anthems and worship songs)
Why are we making this change?
After two years of recording weekly music collections, we have a huge back catalogue with plenty of choice. We can now share everything that exists with you in the form of permanent collections.
This new approach will also release capacity for us to be able to gradually add more musical styles including contemporary tracks, which many people have been asking for.
We often get requests for tracks that are no longer available because of the weekly approach. This will now give you more time to download the music you need for your online and onsite services.
From when will this change apply?
In the week after Easter Sunday 2022, we will release our first permanent collection, for the Sundays after Easter.
We will continue to release a permanent collection for the start of each season in 2022-23.
How will this affect me?
Those of you who usually look out for the weekly choices, will instead head to the relevant collection where you can decide which of the collection tracks you want each week.