## Summary The Center for Congregational Song is the outreach arm of The Hymn Society in the U.S. and Canada. Its director is Brian Hehn. The center coordinates denominational CCLI vetting projects across traditions and is building an ecumenical meta-list of CCLI Top 100 songs greenlit by all participating traditions. As of 2024, the UCC has not participated — a gap Hehn is actively working to close. ## Key facts - **Relationship.** Outreach arm of The Hymn Society; same board, different mission (Hymn Society is inwardly focused on member care; Center is "forward-looking and outward-leaning"). - **Director.** Brian Hehn. Also director of adult discipleship and liturgical worship at St. John's Lutheran Church of Sweet Air, metro Baltimore. Comfortable leading congregational singing in any style. - **Website.** congregationalsong.org - **Key project.** Ecumenical CCLI Top 100 vetting meta-project — compiling all denominational teams' verdicts into one cross-traditional approved list. ## Denominational vetting participation coordinated As of 2024: - **UMC** (2015/2017, 2021, 2024 rounds) — the originating project. - **CRCNA** (Christian Reformed, early 2024) — vetting team included Anglican, Presbyterian (PCA) voices alongside CRC. - **Association of Lutheran Church Musicians** (*CrossAccent*, Fall/Winter 2023). - **Anabaptist/Mennonite** — led by Sarah Kathleen Johnson, Emily Ralph Servant, Anneli Loepp Thiessen; late 2024/early 2025 release. - **Roman Catholic** — Hehn is compiling this himself, given the absence of a unified Catholic music approval process from the USCCB. - **UCC** — not yet participating. ## The ecumenical meta-list goal Hehn's stated aim: after the Catholic and Mennonite lists are complete, publish an ecumenical list of CCLI Top 100 songs greenlit by all participating traditions. The list will carry the Center's message: *"These are good CCLI songs; please sing them."* Whether it will be continuously updated depends on feedback and whether new hymnal committees reference it. He anticipates the list may be very short. "Lots of songs? Or five? Or eight?" — he does not know how much ecumenical consensus exists. ## CCLI as echo chamber Hehn notes CCLI data is not representative of all congregational practice. Reporting skews toward larger congregations with more resources and administrative awareness of CCLI requirements. Smaller and house churches are underrepresented. The Center advocates for CCLI to publish data disaggregated by congregation size. The "Top 100" reflects the practice of a specific socioeconomic-institutional slice of American Christianity. ## The UCC gap The UCC has no denominational CCLI vetting project. The UCC Music and Liturgical Arts page leaves song selection to local congregations. The UCC's congregationalist polity may explain this absence — there is no connectional structure comparable to UMC's Discipleship Ministries to run such a project. Brian Hehn is the appropriate contact for a UCC regional team or individual congregation seeking to engage the ecumenical project. > [!question] UCC engagement with the ecumenical project > Courtney/St. John's UCC is potentially positioned to initiate UCC participation in the ecumenical meta-list. No structural barrier exists; Hehn is actively soliciting participants. A regional Penn Central Conference effort, a UCCMA initiative, or an individual congregation's pilot rubric (see [[Worship Song Vetting Rubric St Johns UCC]]) could all be entry points. ## The Hymn Society relationship The Hymn Society (THS) emphasizes classic hymnody and serves its members through conferences and publications. The Center for Congregational Song is THS's more forward-looking wing — it bridges classic hymnody and contemporary worship, coordinates across traditions, and publishes practical resources (A Cappella Sunday program, podcast, album reviews). ## Related - [[Worship Music Vetting Projects]] — full context for all vetting projects - [[Calvin Institute of Christian Worship]] — academic partner; Calvin Institute publishes interviews with Hehn's project collaborators - [[United Methodist Church Discipleship Ministries]] — the originating project that Hehn coordinated - [[Kathryn Ritsema Roelofs]] — CRC project lead; works with Hehn ecumenically - [[Worship Song Vetting Rubric St Johns UCC]] — the St. John's draft rubric this gap analysis informs - [[2026-04-24 Worship Music Vetting Compendium]] — primary source