HUMOR: Hymns vs Praise Choruses

Found online.

A man accustomed to a mainline church went to a seekers’ service one Sunday. He came home and his wife asked him how it was. 

“Well,” he said, “it was interesting. They did something different. They sang praise choruses instead of hymns." 

“Praise choruses?” said his wife. “What are those?” 

“They’re sort of like hymns, only different,” said the man. 

“What’s the difference?” asked his wife. 

He replied, “Well, it’s like this. If I were to say to you, ‘Martha, the cows are in the corn,’ that would be a hymn. Suppose, on the other hand, I were to say to you: 

‘Martha, Martha, Martha, Oh, Martha, MARTHA, MARTHA, 

the cows, the big cows, the white cows, the black and white cows, the COWS, COWS, 

COWS are in the corn, are in the corn, are in the corn, are in the CORN, CORN, CORN.’ 

Then, if I were to repeat the whole thing five or six times, that would be a praise chorus.”

There's such a thing as being TOO literal

Rare hymnal gets preserved

One of the great treasures of the Church is the songs we have written to praise our Lord. The great hymnal of the Hebrew people is even preserved as part of the Bible itself - Psalms! So, it is nice to see people working to preserve historic hymnals so that generations to come can see how past generations praised God.

A church is donating a rare 1502 hymnal to a Manchester University library, where church members say it can receive better care.

The Latin hymnal was published in London by Wynken de Worde, who was among the first to popularize printed works. The hymnal will be stored at The John Rylands University Library along with a trove of other books that have been kept in a church tower in the town of Nantwich since about 1695.

The library at St. Mary's Church, one of many set up in parish churches around England, apparently was well used for about a century before falling into neglect.