Hymns & Choir
Hymns
Are you looking for a particular hymn? If so, click on the link below where you can play some favourite hymns, or search for a particular one.
The links go to the Net Hymnal website who maintain that they are the #1 Hymn site on the web, featuring over 10,000 Christian hymns, Author Bios, Composer Biographies, Hymn Histories and Gospel songs from many denominations. You'll find lyrics, scores, MIDI files, pictures, history, & more. This worship & teaching resource is provided as a public service.
You can click on the sample hymns below, which are usually played on a piano, but if you are looking for a particular hymn, click here and search among the 10,000 hymns.
Wesley Singers
God loves variety. At Wesley Church we endeavour to celebrate variety in the ways we worship. Whether we are praising God through traditional music, worshipping with contemporary Christian song, appreciating the beauty of our floral arrangements or challenged by the words of prayers or Scripture, there are many ways people's gifts are used in the Wesley community. Music is a very important part of the Wesley tradition.
The Wesley Choir makes a valued contribution to our services, opening worship and leading the congregational singing. The organ, and sometimes other instruments, enrich our worship. It has truly been said that 'Methodism was born in song', and this is probably because Charles Wesley wrote over 6000 hymns, some of them still being sung today, almost 300 years later. Click here to see what John Wesley had to say about singing.
Our choirmaster, Jeremy Whimster, leads us very competently, finding a suitable anthem for us to sing, no matter how many, or few, choristers there are present. Click here to read a reprint of an article about him that appeared in the Summer issue of 'Music in the Air'.
John Wesley's Rules on Singing
- Learn these tunes before you learn any others; afterwards learn as many as you please.
- Sing them exactly as they are printed here, without altering or amending them at all; and if you have learned to sing them otherwise, unlearn it as soon as you can.
- Sing all. See that you join with the congregation as frequently as you can. Let not a slight degree of weakness or weariness hinder you. If it is a cross to you, take it up, and you will find it a blessing.
- Sing lustily and with a good courage. Beware of singing as if you were half dead, or half asleep; but lift up your voice with strength. Be no more afraid of your voice now, nor more ashamed of its being heard. than when you sung the songs of Satan.
- Sing modestly. Do not bawl, so as to be heard above or distinct from the rest of the congregation, that you may not destroy the harmony; but strive to unite your voices together, so as to make one clear melodious sound.
- Sing in time. Whatever time is sung be sure to keep with it. Do not run before nor stay behind it; but attend close to the leading voices, and move therewith as exactly as you can; and take care not to sing too slow. This drawling way naturally steals on all who are lazy; and it is high time to drive it our from us. and sing all our tunes just as quick as we did at first.
- Above all sing spiritually. Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Aim at pleasing him more than yourself, or any other creature. In order to do this attend strictly to the sense of what you sing, and see that your heart is not carried away with the sound, but offered to God continually; so shall your singing be such as the Lord will approve here, and reward you when he cometh in the clouds of heaven.
John Wesley (1703-1791).
