Synopsis of This is Our Song

Women have made a creative and prolific contribution to hymnody through the centuries. Excluded from liturgical commissions and denied other opportunities for involvement in the worship of the churches, women were able to express and influence spirituality in the writing of hymns. This influence includes writing for children, which was at one time seen as women's natural place, but also the introduction of new voices through translations, engagement in social campaigns such as temperance and the abolition of slavery, mission and evangelism, and the general development of worshipping life. This book opens up women's writing from the beginnings of Christianity, through the Middle Ages, the development of printing and the rise of popular hymnody to the present day. Living hymn writers add their voices in a series of biographical 'stories', which complete the overarching 'Story of Our Song'.