The Third Batch of New Hymns!

general
frequency
new hymns
Author

Joey Stanley

Published

February 16, 2025

Modified

April 21, 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 since when the third batch came out. I’ll update this page weekly as I collect more data. Currently I have data from 4,723 sacrament meetings from 914 wards since February 16th.

But 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
Since February 16th
date wards
February 16 565
February 23 454
March 02 595
March 09 539
March 16 498
March 23 540
March 30 490
April 13 574
April 20 468

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 19.4% of the 248 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 7.9% of wards sang at least one of those hymns right away. But, that jumped up to 15.8% and eventually peaked five weeks in at 24.1% 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. Since 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 565 wards and just 1.1% of them sang one of the brand new songs. The second week was better, with 7.3%, 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. In the past few weeks, 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, but it still trails behind the first batch.

There may be a few reasons why so few wards are singing from this third batch. Perhaps music coordinators have the hymns planned out for the month or quarter already and don’t want to change plans, particularly for the sake of the organists. Maybe the novelty of new hymns has worn off a little bit. I would say maybe because there weren’t any “bangers” like Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing (#1001) and Amazing Grace (#1010), but I’d put This Little Light of Mine (#1028) and Faith in Every Footstep (#1022) up there. Regardless, the point of the matter is that the third batch has not been popular so far.

What hymns are most popular each week?

Even though still relatively few wards have sung from the third batch, we can start to get an idea of what hymns were popular when of the wards that sang them.

Now that it’s been over a month, we can start to see some patterns. It seems like the most popular hymns are somewhat erratic: Softly and Tenderly Jesus Is Calling (#1020), I Know That My Savior Loves Me (#1021), and This Little Light of Mine (#1028) jump around a lot for some reason. It’s likely a sample size issue, again because so few wards are singing them. Some of the less common ones don’t show a clear pattern, other than they’re generally present but not common. Some become slightly more popular after a few weeks, again suggesting (like the other batches) that once wards have gotten the favorites out of the way, they are then open to trying new ones. The most obvious trend though is Let Easter Anthems Ring (#1205) and Were You There? (#1206) being sung around Easter.

When during meetings are these hymns sung?

We can now see when during sacrament meetings these hymns have been sung. Again, since I have not seen very many wards singing from this third batch quite yet, it’s difficult to notice any patterns. So this is just a very preliminary look based on just a little bit of data.

When were new hymns sung in sacrament meeting?
Since February 15
New Hymn Opening Sacrament Intermediate Closing
To Love Like Thee (1019)
20%
0%
33%
47%
Softly and Tenderly Jesus Is Calling (1020)
39%
0%
27%
34%
I Know That My Savior Loves Me (1021)
43%
0%
24%
33%
Faith in Every Footstep (1022)
33%
0%
33%
33%
Standing on the Promises (1023)
50%
0%
26%
24%
I Have Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (1024)
0%
0%
0%
100%
Take My Heart and Let It Be Consecrated (1025)
6%
0%
29%
65%
Holy Places (1026)
14%
14%
29%
43%
Welcome Home (1027)
55%
5%
18%
23%
This Little Light of Mine (1028)
30%
0%
48%
22%
I Can’t Count Them All (1029)
56%
0%
22%
22%
Close as a Quiet Prayer (1030)
0%
0%
33%
67%
Come, Hear the Word the Lord Has Spoken (1031)
58%
0%
11%
32%
Let Easter Anthems Ring (1205)
53%
0%
9%
38%
Were You There? (1206)
50%
7%
12%
31%
Note: Each row adds up to 100%.

Conclusion

Now that it has been a couple months since the third batch was released, we can see which are more popular than others and when they’re sung during the meeting. What is clear though is the relatively cold reception these hymns got in the first month. But, people have warmed up to them, especially the Easter ones.