Praise Susan,

Hi, I'm a big hymnnut myself and regrettably didn't see this thread yesterday until one minute before the library computer time I was using ran out, so I just copied the thread (as of 10:30pm) to a floppy and brought it home to annotate. ;-)

I don't know anything about your theology or your worship style, except what I've gleaned from this thread, so I may make some very inappropriate suggestions, in which case sorry, but you did want "[MY] Favorite Hymns".

I'll bypass those that are only in Esperanto or other non-English languages. But I do enjoy singing other languages, and sometimes when we're singing a hymn I know in another tongue (such as Adeste fideles (O come, all ye faithful) or Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott (A Mighty Fortress is our God (us) = A Sure Stronghold our God is still (uk)) in church I'll go ahead and sing the Latin or German or whatever, ignoring whatever havoc this may cause to those about me; I know the Apostle Paul would get on my case about that - I Cor. 14:9 ;-).

First off, I like some of my own hymns, probably the three I most like singing are my Easter Monday breakfast hymn, Come then, let's have breakfast, my Christmas/Innocents carol In Bethlem Town (to the "Pesky Sarpent" tune aka "Springfield Mountain"), and my quasiantiphonal hymn in honor of Jesus' female forebears, Who'd have thought the Lord Almighty (I haven't got this up on my site yet; still trying to put together the MIDI).

Now...
Probably my two favorite hymns to sing while waiting for the bus are His voice as the sound of the dulcimer sweet (to Samanthra); it's in The Cyber Hymnal (I contributed it); and likewise Come away to the skies (to Middlebury), which is also in Hymnal 1982 (Episcopal) if you have access to that. The latter we have sung successfully in church, the former not. Both are Southern Harmony hymns, and may also be (I haven't checked) in one edition or another of the Sacred Harp. I also like Come, O thou traveler unknown (I sing it to Candler, a Scottish folk tune, as in the 1989 United Methodist Hymnal), but don't have enough of its stanzas memorized to be useful at bus stops.

I like We are standing on holy ground and the text by Chief Seattle, Every part of the earth.

I like Frances Havergal hymns, especially Like a River Glorious (to Wye Valley), Light after darkness (I prefer, however O Quanta Qualia over the Sankey tune most American hymnals that have it give), and (I just learned this last week) On Our Way Rejoicing (to Havergal's own Hermas).

At our evening service recurrent favorites are Jesus loves me, Amazing Grace, The Wedding Banquet, I'll Fly Away, Marching to Zion, a medley of Do Lord + Jesus Walkin' on the Water + I Have Decided to Follow Jesus, Surely Goodness and Mercy (A Pilgrim was I and a-wand'ring) (this is a sort of Psalm 23 spinoff, making explicit the interpretation that "the Lord my Shepherd" = "Jesus", to a tune that is a little reminiscent of Old Rosin the Beau), Give me oil in my lamp, We Are One in the Spirit, ...

I also like Who Is on the Lord's Side, Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the Metropolitan Community Church songs We Are the Church Alive and Our God is like an Eagle, Praise to the Living God (to Leoni (Yigdal)), O Worship the King, ...

I love a lot of the Welsh hymn tunes, such as Hyfrydol [Come, thou long-expected Jesus; Alleluia, Sing to Jesus; Love Divine, All Love Excelling], Ton-y-Botel (aka Ebenezer) [Once to Every Man and Nation; O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus], Cwm Rhondda [Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah; God of Grace and God of Glory], and St. Denio (aka Joanna) [Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise; God Made from One Flesh all the Families of Earth].

Now I'll take a look at some of the others' lists in this thread and see what I can add:

Mary in Kentucky: I second "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing", to Nettleton (this tune is nearly universal for the text in USA but little known, I think, in UK). The Dakota hymn "Wotanin waste nahon po" ("Hear the Good News of Salvation") to the same tune is an upbeat one, too.

MMario: Second Here I Am Lord — a great hymn, musically and imagewise.

Dave (the ancient mariner): I entirely agree about the importance of tunes — but then you gave a list with no tune names in it. The names you gave after the titles are the lyricists, not the composers. I don't know the tune for the Downton hymn, and by "Pilgrim Song" I am assuming you mean "He Who Would Valiant Be" set to St. Dunstan's; for the others I am betting you mean Melita, Wir Pflügen, Bunessan, Royal Oak, , St. Anne, Rest (Maker); what is "your version" of "Stand Up Stand Up for Jesus" (I can't picture myself singing it to anything other than Webb aka Morning Light!)

Quincy: Good choices, especially "To God Be the Glory" ("Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus, our blessed Redeemer" is another good Crosby number)

mrs_zezam: Yes, and Joyful, joyful, we adore thee, and All glory, laud and honour

Burke: Amen to your suggestions; a sidelight on "Wondrous Love": the tune is essentially the same as the secular "Captain Kidd". A Sacred Harp tune I enjoy (though I'm not sure it could work in 21st-century worship) is The Trumpet; incidentally, does anybody know a variant text where (the archangel) Michael is mentioned in the second stanza? I know I have seen such, but I can't imagine where. I guess I'll have to initiate a thread on that. Yes to All hail the power, but be forewarned that Diadem takes a little practice to get it down (Coronation [the US norm] and Miles Lane [the UK norm] are both much simpler to sing)

Alex (mousethief): Amen to your list, especially "And Can It Be", "For the Beauty of the Earth" and "Holy Holy Holy" (assuming you mean Heber to Nicaea); but I have no clue what tune IVCF's Hymns III uses for "All Hail the Power" — is it one of the three mentioned in my note to Burke above? or something different?

mrs_zezam: More good ones; see, I told you you'd like "Joyful"!

winterbright: All good suggestions; and thanks for bringing in an African-American spiritual or two; there are lots in that tradition that I love, Steal Away, Study War No More, Balm in Gilead... And as for Unitarian hymns, the carol It came upon the midnight clear is a good one.

bflat: "How Can I Keep from Singing" is a good Lowry hymn (among others, he also wrote "He Arose" and the wonderful "Chorus of Fire", and apparently the music to the Fanny Crosby "Glad Tidings", which has basically disappeared in English but remains popular in Hawaiian as "Nu 'Oli")

bbc: The tune had better be Sagina!

Mary in Kentucky again: More good choices! Seems to me one of those Baptist 1975 versions of Come Ye Sinners Poor and Needy is the Sacred Heart setting, Beach Spring, which is by far the most widespread Sacred Heart tune in the mainstream hymnals. I like Ruth Duck's As a Fire Is Meant for Burning for it.

Parson Randall: Great is thy faithfulness and It Is Well are both must-sings! (Tunes: Faithfulness — unfortunately still copyright in US, I think — and Ville du Havre, the latter named after a ship that played a role in the story behind the song that the Parson alluded to (can be found i.a. on The Cyber Hymnal

What did I forget?
In addition to the old standbys for Christmas carols, I like A Stable Lamp Is Lighted (to Andújar), One Candle Is Lit (an Advent-candle hymn that can be sung a stanza a week) in the Chalice Hymnal, The Huron Carol (though it would be nice to have a slightly less Hiawathaish distortion of the original), and I prefer the refrainless approach to What Child Is This, as in the Lutheran Book of Worship and the UCC's New Century Hymnal ...
I like Brian Wren's Sing my song backwards, a number of recent hymns to O Waly Waly (e.g. Create Us New, or "I come to be baptized today" in the Chalice Hymnal, or Brian Wren's more widely known "When Love Is Found" and Fred Pratt Green's "An Upper Room Did Our Lord Prepare"); Jaroslav Vajda's "Now the Silence" and "Then the Glory(?)"; Wren's "Bring Many Names"; Sydney Carter (of "Lord of the Dance" fame)'s "Said Judas to Mary"; the great Dakota hymn "Many and Great, O God, are your Works" (tune: Lacquiparle); the "Battle Hymn of the Republic"; "Onward, Christian Soldiers"; "Soldiers of Christ, Arise"; "Praise to God" (to "Sakura"); "Come, Ye Thankful People, Come"; "We Gather Together" (turkey day a-comin'!); "Hallelujah! Thine the Glory"; "Marvelous Grace of our Loving Lord"; "I Know Whom I Have Believèd"; "It May Be at Morn (Christ Returneth)"; "Blessed be the Name (All praise to him who reigns above)"; "Hosanna, loud hosanna"; "The Day of Resurrection"; "Hail Thee, Festival Day"; "Ye Who Share the Faith of Jesus"; "St. Joseph Was a Quiet Man"; "Jesus Shall Reign Where'er the Sun"; "All Creatures of Our God and King"; "This Is My Father's World"; "Motherhood, Sublime, Eternal" (a God-the-Mother hymn from the 1941 Baptist/Disciples hymnal of all places); "Faith of our Fathers" (preferably with the stanza where Mary's prayers win England back to Christ); "O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing My Great Redeemer's Praise"; "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling" to Beecher (I already mentioned it to Hyfrydol); "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today" and "Jesus Christ Is Risen Today"; "Thine Is (aka Be) the Glory"; "Sweet Hour of Prayer"; "My Jesus, I Love Thee"; "O How I Love Jesus"; "Hail to the Lord's Anointed" to "Sheffield" aka "British Grenadiers"; "Isaiah the Prophet Has Written of Old" (to Samanthra); "Brightest and Best of the Sons of the Morning" (to many different tunes, including several old fasola airs); "Though the Angry Surges Roll" ("My Anchor Holds"); "Jesus Calls Us O'er the Tumult" (to Galilee (Jude)); "Silence, Frenzied, Unclean Spirit!" (to Authority); "Alas! and Did My Savior Bleed" (to Martyrdom in Lent, Hudson elsewhen); "Just As I Am" (to Woodworth); "Ah, Holy Jesus! How Hast Thou Offended?"; "O Sacred Head, Sore Wounded"; "My Song Is Love Unknown" (I prefer it to Love Unknown); "Come, Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain" (to St. Kevin); "Now the Green Blade Rises" (to Noël Nouvelet); "Creator God, Creating Still" (to St. Anne); "A Woman and a Coin"; "When Jesus Came to Golgotha"; "When God Is a Child"; "like a child"; "Mothering God, You Gave Me Birth"; "Blessed Be the God of Israel, Who Comes to Set Us Free" (to Merle's Tune); "Emmanuel, Emmanuel"; "People, Look East"; "God's Love Made Visible!"; "Sing of Mary, Pure and Lowly" (to Pleading Savior); "Woman in the Night"; "The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power"; "Jesus Christ Was a Man" (Woody Guthrie); "He Lives!"; "On Pentecost They Gathered" (to Munich or Sheffield); "Holy Wisdom"; "The Church's One Foundation" (and various rebuttal texts to the same tune, Aurelia); "I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord" (preferably unmodernized); "As a Chalice Cast of Gold"; "I Cannot Dance, O Love"; "Joyful Is the Dark, Holy, Hidden God"; "I Bind unto Myself Today" (to St. Patrick's Breastplate/Deirdre); "We, Your People, God, Confessing" (to In Babilone); "All Who Hunger, Gather Gladly" (to Holy Manna); "Come, Celebrate the Call of God" (to Alida's Tune; "Jesus Saves"; "Many Are the Lightbeams" (this is a recent Swedish song, but it paraphrases one of the oldest extrabiblical texts in our hymn corpus, in De unitate ecclesiae by Cyprian of Carthage, from about the year 250); "Weave"; "Holy and Good Is the Gift of Desire"; "When Aimless Violence Takes Those We Love" (to Sursum Corda); "When Our Confidence Is Shaken" (to Lauda Anima); "The Solid Rock"; "O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go"; "No, Not One"; "Standing on the Promises"; "Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross"; "I Am Thine, O Lord"; "Living for Jesus"; "'Are Ye Able,' Said the Master"; "Lift Every Voice and Sing" (the NAACP Anthem); "Let There Be Peace on Earth"; "Rejoice, the Lord is King!" (to Darwall's 148^th); "Let All Things Now Living" and "Sent Forth By God's Blessing" (both to Ash Grove); etc.

There are too many others to list, but still, if you look up some of the ones I've mentioned that you don't know, maybe you'll get some good from all that verbiage. If there are some you really want but can't find, I can send you MIDI or Noteworthy Composer files of most of them.

Blessings (as the Wiccans say),
Liland
Esperanto hymnist
Liberal Baptist [sic] layman

PS Adoru, a new ecumenical hymnal currently being compiled in Europe, is I am told planning on including seven or eight of my pieces: three of my original-in-Esperanto works (including my baptismal hymn Akve mi baptas vin, the Easter morning breakfast hymn mentioned earlier), and my translations of "Immortal, invisible", "Great is thy faithfulness", "My anchor holds", "Give me oil in my lamp", and maybe "Let all mortal flesh keep silence". Naturally I'm quite excited to have someone else wanting to publish my stuff, though I'll never get rich off Esperanto royalties. ;-) (And why, I can hear some surviving relatives say, would anyone bother to write worship songs except for the royalties?) ;-(