I think it’s pretty common in the US. I would say most US parishes are still very reliant on physical hymnals/missals and rarely use music from outside the books in the pews. I’ve even seen the terms “GIA parish” and “OCP parish” used to describe which company’s products are sitting in the pews, which then determines the parish’s repertoire.

GIA parishes tend to have a more stable repertoire since GIA mostly deals in long-term hard cover hymnals, but those parishes are locked into whatever music is in the hymnal for at least 10 years, usually longer. For example, my home parish had Worship 3 in the pews for around 25 years before replacing them with Worship 4. The parish still has Gather 2 (not Gather Comp. 2) from the early 90s as their “contemporary” resource.

OCP parishes who use Breaking Bread tend to add more new music, but you’re never guaranteed that your old favorites (and new additions) will still be in the book the next year.

While many parishes are limited to one hymnal or missal, it’s not uncommon to see a parish with both Breaking Bread and some edition of Gather. A parish in my hometown has Breaking Bread and OCP’s old Glory & Praise hymnal from the 90s to supplement things that were removed from BB. Another church in town has BB and Voices As One Vol 1 & 2.

As Chris mentioned, Breaking Bread has struggled to keep its newer additions in the missal. I noticed many the songs being removed this year are ones I’ve never heard from the mid-2010s. I’m also interested to see how well the newest edition of GIA’s Gather hymnal does since they removed many of the 70s and 80s songs that I would still consider pretty popular (mostly OCP songs) and replaced them with newer songs that in my opinion are much more difficult to sing.

Whether one uses hymnals or missals, it still means being beholden to that particular publisher. Even in Australia it was an issue with Gather Australia back in the 90s: despite the huge success of his “On Eagle’s Wings” collection, none of Frank Andersen’s hymns were included.

I don’t understand US parishes usage of missals these days. Back in the 80s and 90s when accessible contemporary hymns started finding a form and substance acceptible to mainstream Catholics rather than just the young, it probably made sense, with memorable music being added every year, replacing poor material from the 60s and 70s. These days, however, the newer songs are simply not catching on: very few added to “Breaking Bread” ten years ago are still in it. Then consider the environmental waste of throwing out a (paperback) hymnal each year, even if it is recycled. It’s clearly a cash cow for the publisher getting people to buy what they “own” (or, more correctly, license) again and again.

Goodness – that cuts out most GIA and Hope Publications copyrights and most songwriters not from the USA. That’s almost enough throw in the towel and go traditional/PD + local parish compositions.

Geoff

Pretty much… at least concerning the congregation’s selections. We used to print weekly worship aids, but switched over to Breaking Bread missals a few years ago. I haven’t seen a worship aid since. We also used to project lyrics when certain groups did the music, but those groups have either disbanded since the pandemic or just use Breaking Bread like everyone else.

We use music from other publishers for mass settings and psalm settings, but everything else is from Breaking Bread so if OCP says a song is out, it’s gone.

Ryan

Does that mean your parish is tied to OCP’s whims?

Geoff