Church of Jesus Christ to release 12 hymns in new book as it prepares for general conference

SALT LAKE CITY — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced it would be updating its hymn book almost six years ago. Since then, a church committee has been reviewing over 17,000 submissions of original hymns and gathering hymns from across the world.

The church says one song that isn’t in its current hymnbook, which was published in 1985, will be back: “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.”

That popular hymn will be one of 12 included in the first digital release of music for the new book — “Hymns for Home and Church” — next month on May 30 in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French. Every few months over the next two to three years, more digital hymns will be released on the church’s updated music app and website “as part of a gradual advanced release” until the new hymnbook is complete.

“There will be one hymnbook for the entire world. There will be music from Germany, or from Spain, from Brazil, from Africa and they’ll be translated into all the languages,” said Anfissa Smith, a member of the church’s hymnbook committee. “How exciting is this work, to have one hymnbook that represents languages from all over the world. It will be unitedly one church.”

Read the full story and more from Emily Ashcraft on KSL.com

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