Sing to the Lord en français

MONTREAL -A group of 40 Lutherans from five countries gathered in Montreal April 27-29 for an introductory workshop for Liturgies et Cantiques Luthériens , the first French-language hymnal for Lutherans in almost 30 years. A project of Lutheran Church–Canada pastors Dr. David Somers of Montreal and Dr. David Saar (Mt. Forest, Ontario), the 864-page hymnal includes three liturgies and more than 400 hymns, some never-before published.

“In addition to our Lutheran communities, we have become aware of other francophone Christian denominations that experience a similar lack of appropriate French-language liturgy and hymnody and have expressed an interest in our project,” explained Pastor Somers. “This service book and hymnal which reflects our confessional Lutheran theology is proving to be a wonderful blessing to build up the francophone Christian community” The pastor reports that five new francophone Lutheran USA congregations were ‘discovered’ through the course of conversations at the workshop.

Liturgies et Cantiques Luthériens is based on Lutheran Service Book, a 2006 hymnal from The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. The American publisher, Concordia Publishing House has cooperated on the French project, providing guidance with copyrights and technical support.

Rev. Jon Vieker, assistant director of the LCMS Commission on Worship and the Lutheran Service Book project, was guest speaker. He made three presentations on the proclamative nature of Lutheran hymnody.

Samples of the new hymnal are available onLCC’s website

Samples of the new hymnal are available at http://www.lutheranchurchcanada.ca/francais.php?s=liturgies