The Third Batch of New Hymns!

general
frequency
new hymns
Author

Joey Stanley

Published

February 16, 2025

Modified

June 17, 2025

On February 13th, 2025, the church released the third batch of new hymns. In previous posts, I have covered in detail the first and second batches of hymns and how they were incorporated into sacrament meetings. This page covers period from when the third batch came out until the fourth batch came out June 12th, with occasionally slight updates as more data from that period trickles in. Currently I have data from 7,051 sacrament meetings from 1,037 wards between February 16th and June 8, 2025.

First, here’s how much data I have for each week so far, just so you have an idea of what I’m working with.

Number of wards I have data from, by week
Between February 16th and June 8th, 2025
date wards
February 16 570
February 23 458
March 02 620
March 09 567
March 16 527
March 23 557
March 30 518
April 13 663
April 20 533
April 27 362
May 04 400
May 11 75
May 18 175
May 25 58
June 01 434
June 08 534

How many wards sang new hymns each week?

The following plot show what percentage of wards sang from each of the new batches of hymns, per week, since June 2024 when the new hymns started getting rolled out. I’ve included data from all three batches just so you can compare them to each other.

In June, the first batch was readily incorporated into congregational singing. That first week, about 19.2% of the 255 wards I have data from sang one of the new hymns. It stayed pretty consistently about that high for the next three months. During Christmastime, it surged in popularity again, mostly because there were some Christmas hymns introduced in that batch.

When the second batch came out, only about 7.6% of wards sang at least one of those hymns right away. But, that jumped up to 15.3% and eventually peaked five weeks in at 23.9% on October 20. It took a nosedive during Christmastime since there weren’t any Christmas hymns in that batch. After that, it partially recovered in January and early February, hovering around 13% of wards singing from it each week. Meanwhile, the first batch of hymns has almost always been more popular. In October 2024, when the second batch was most popular, the two were about even. After Christmas, the first batch has consistently been more popular than the second batch.

Now we get to the third batch. If the second batch’s reception was lukewarm, the third batch was downright cold. On the first week of the third batch, I have data from 570 wards and just 1.1% of them sang one of the brand new songs. The second week was better, with 7.2%, but still far below where the other batches were during their first few weeks. It’s not like people are no longer singing new hymns; in fact, the first and second batches are going as strong as ever. Around Easter, the third batch has finally surpassed the second batch in weekly popularity, partly due to Let Easter Anthems Ring (#1205) and Were You There? (#1206) around Easter. After a dip on Mother’s Day, it finally hit its high point on May 25th with 25.9% of wards singing it, finally passing the first batch of hymns in weekly popularity. For some reason, it dipped again the followng week, and then the fourth batch came out!

What hymns are most popular each week?

It’s been long enough that we can get an idea of which hymns were popular when. The following plot shows the percentage of wards that sang each hymn of the wards that sang any third batch hymns.

The most obvious trend though is Let Easter Anthems Ring (#1205) and Were You There? (#1206) being sung around Easter. Other than that, there isn’t much of a pattern for these hymns. Some of the more popular ones jumped around in popularity a little bit from week to week, but it’s not like we’re seeing an obvious trend of one hymn being sung more often soon after the release of the batch—as if wards were anxious to sing it—like what we saw in the first batch

When during meetings are these hymns sung?

We can now see when during sacrament meetings these hymns have been sung.

When were new hymns sung in sacrament meeting?
Since February 15
New Hymn Opening Sacrament Intermediate Closing
To Love Like Thee (1019)
32%
0%
29%
39%
Softly and Tenderly Jesus Is Calling (1020)
41%
1%
25%
33%
I Know That My Savior Loves Me (1021)
47%
0%
27%
26%
Faith in Every Footstep (1022)
39%
0%
24%
36%
Standing on the Promises (1023)
52%
0%
23%
25%
I Have Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (1024)
41%
0%
29%
29%
Take My Heart and Let It Be Consecrated (1025)
14%
3%
25%
58%
Holy Places (1026)
22%
4%
39%
35%
Welcome Home (1027)
43%
2%
29%
27%
This Little Light of Mine (1028)
29%
0%
44%
27%
I Can’t Count Them All (1029)
47%
0%
21%
32%
Close as a Quiet Prayer (1030)
31%
0%
19%
50%
Come, Hear the Word the Lord Has Spoken (1031)
66%
0%
10%
24%
Let Easter Anthems Ring (1205)
55%
0%
11%
34%
Were You There? (1206)
50%
9%
16%
26%
Note: Each row adds up to 100%.

Again, like any plot like this, each hymn has its own story it seems. Some are simply more popular as opening hymns, or closing hymns, or intermediate hymns. We didn’t really get any sacrament hymns in this batch, but that didn’t stop people from singing some from this batch very occasionally. It seems like most of these hymns were pretty evenly spread out between being sung as opening, intermediate, and closing hymns.

Conclusion

It took longer for this third batch to catch on like the first and second batches did. In fact, it took right until before the fourth batch to come out for this one to become as popular as the first batch. I think it’s safe to say though that the novelty of a new batch of hymns has worn off a little bit and people aren’t quite as anxious to sing through every new hymn like they once might have been. We’ll see how this batch compares to the next one!