Not every member of the church's congregation will approve, but at least it solves the problem of who will play the organ. The "Hymnal Plus," a karaoke-like machine with a repertoire of almost 3,000 hymns and psalms, is becoming your local church's latest must-have item.
As well as traditional songs of praise, the British-made machine can play a disco version of Amazing Grace and a jazzy adaptation of The Lord's My Shepherd. Churchgoers who struggle to remember the words can look up at a big screen for help, just like real karaoke.
Traditional churches will, no doubt, favor the "pipe organ and piano" settings or perhaps even try the "big strings and harpsichord," but the more adventurous will be able to experiment with driving drum beats and horn sections.
Built-in Midi and MP3 players mean that music directors can add their own songs to the standard repertoire.
And clergy beware, the Hymnal Plus can also lead parishioners in prayers and recite pre-recorded sermons.
Worried by the shortage and aging population of organists, churches are beginning to snap up the machine, which in the UK costs ?1,900 (US$3,386).
The 15th century St Mary the Virgin church in Mudford, near Yeovil in Somerset, in the west of England, was one of the first customers. The parish does have an organist, Christine Whitby, but she is in her 80s and sometimes wants a week off.
Bill Watkins, a church warden and now "hymn DJ," will have his fingers on the remote control when it makes its debut next month.
He said: "We don't want to replace Christine with this box of tricks but it will allow her to take a break or to stay away without her feeling guilty when she is feeling under the weather."
"There are no young organists on the horizon, which is a nationwide problem so one day it might be all we have," he said.
Watkins is impressed with the flexibility of the machine. If the congregation is struggling to hit a particular note, he can change the pitch at a touch of the button. If a rousing finale is required, he could alter the tone, volume or style.
But he said: "We are quite a traditional church so I don't think we'll be going for any disco beats or jazzy sounds just yet."
Alan Kempster, a director at the company that manufactures the machine, Hymn Technology Ltd (motto: No organist? No musicians? No problem!), said there had been growing interest in the product, not just from churches but also hospitals, prisons and military chaplaincies.
He said the response from organists had been positive.
"It's not about putting organists out of business. It's about giving churches an alternative. I spoke to one church organist recently who had been playing the organ for 50 years and was sick to death of it. This takes the pressure of people like that," he said.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion