Written to a friend who provided lovely music at a friend's funeral service:

Thanks for the wonderful music at Darrell's service! After our conversation I did some detective work and discovered the following: In the dark blue Pilgrim Hymnal, Revised edition copyright 1935, which was the one in use at the First Congregational/UCC when we arrived, "The Old Rugged Cross" does not appear. In the one which replaced it, Hymns for the Living Church, copyright 1974, which replaced it (I believe during my dad's time as interim,) and in the new hymnal they use currently (don't know title and copyright but it's medium blue and quite recent), it does appear! Surprising. But as I said, I never remember singing it there, but somehow knew it.

In the Pilgrim Hymnal, "Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling" appears, including verse 3 as follows:

Time is now fleeting, the moments are passing,
Passing from you and from me;
Shadows are gathering, deathbeds are coming,
Coming for you and for me.

Hymns for the Living Church includes this verse, but with "deathbeds" changed to "death's night." Both the hymnal currently in use in the UCC church and that in the Catholic church completely omit this verse, and the Catholic version goes so far as to change the final line, "Calling, O sinner, come home!" to "calling for you to come home." Interesting, huh?

I vividly remember that third verse because once at the Presbyterian Church we attended with my mom's parents in upstate New York, somebody started crying at the deathbed reference. A chain reaction started, with my mom's father probably being among the first to succumb, and eventually the entire church was sobbing. It made quite the impression on an 11-year-old!

Some of our church hymns have been watered down. I annoy my pew-mates by singing the olde lyrics. I get looks, but the older people appreciate it. It was politically correct junk. One hymn had a line, "The world has no use for the drone." It was a song about working good works. I guess they thought it sounded mean-spirited, so they changed it to some innocuous crap (I guess so they wouldn't offend lazy people in the congregation?). The original line made the point better. Mr. Bradbury hated that politically correct garbage.

Even national anthems have seen some changes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Canada

A few years ago they were talking about changing the French one to eliminate the gory stuff.