Australian hymnbooks

Although this account focuses on five 20th-century Australian hymnals, Australia’s history of hymn publication extends back to 1821 and has involved the Roman Catholic and major protestant traditions, and others including the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Salvation Army, Churches of Christ, Reformed Church and various Pentecostal groups (see ‘Australian hymnody’*). Of the hymnals discussed here, two in particular represent the force of ecumenism in Australian since the 1960s; the others reflect the eventful development of Roman Catholic congregational song in the post-Vatican II era. The Australian Hymn Book Published in 1977, the Australian Hymn Book was a landmark in the history of...