I can add some information about the verses for Amazing Grace. What's the protocal, add them here, start a new thread, or revive the old?

CCEL finally connected for me. Here's the Southern Harmony 1834 version of New Britain AKA Amazing Grace. I forgot about there not being an alto part. The tune is on the middle line.

Re the folks who could only hum along on Abide with Me. If singing the song was a spontaneous expression by the fans, why expect someone to bring the words. How many copies would have been needed anyway. It does provide an example of a lot of songs we tend to think everyone knows, only to attempt it & discover it just isn't so. In my earlier post I mentioned several hymns I think most churchgoers at least would know. I think I might have been right 20 years ago, but so many churches have gotten away from even standard hymns that I'm not sure if younger people would know them. There are also just fewer people going to church on a regular basis so while the tune might have been picked up along the way, the words would probably be unfamiliar.

A couple of years ago within just a few weeks I went to 2 very different festivals that had the same result. At workshops at both Old Songs and Falcoln Ridge someone at the end said, "Let's do something we all know, Amazing Grace." The problem was that no one on the stage actually knew more than the 1st verse. So after one verse they started in on a 2nd but forgot how it went before the end. Sort of anticlimactic.