Hymn #57 in the Red Book

The Church that the Colonel grew up in had very old, brown hymnals. Not only did they smell like your great aunt's living room, but half of the hymns were actually in Finnish.

The Colonel remembers happily singing along, when one of the the elders would suggest a hip diity from the 1700's that would go like this:

Me oikeastaan harhaisku meidän kirkollinen. Ainoa ainoa fiksu kerrakseen jotta haeskella rikki käännös kuulua kuinka hävittäminen nyt kuluva asema has ajaksi objektimuoto

Finally, the church procured a pile of song books that were written in english. This was generally seen as a move in the right direction. Of course, anyone who understands churches and traditions knows that we also had to hang on to the old, Finnish books, "just in case".

This led to a lot of song suggestions followed by, "Which one?" 'Where is that?" "mikä by indiotic debiili!" "Which book is that in again?"

Finally, they settled on a system, as it were. As we would finish one song, a guy up front would clear the dust from his lungs and call out, (This is true...) "Hymn #57 in the Red Book!" And we would all sing it. (It was one of my favorites...really.)

This same situation must have occured in many churches as hymnals have modernized thoughout the years. Some handle the confusion better than others.

The Blond an I visited a Church this Easter. There, in the pew rack was the older, traditional hymn book. Right along side of it was this:



It was so cool...