Reformed Presbyterian Minutes of Synod 1993

68 1993 MINUTES OF THE SYNOD OF THEof the REFORMATION Presbyterian Church.And you should be proud of what your translators are doing! It is workof realscholarship. And in the generations to come, coundess thousandsof people will be singing these words up coundess thousands of timesina pure praise of God. And a living God wiU be speaking His Uving Worddown through these words into their hearts. Translation of this kind is hard,tedious work and I am attaching a one-page sample of it (photocopied asis) in order that you might see that it really is a translation, and that it is thekind of a labor of love for which you wUl want to keep on praying.The prosodists are also beginning their work and it too is now beingcirculated back through the translators. Next we will begin fitting music tothe words—music that will bring out both the feelings and the theology,that we might worship God "in spirit and in tmth." In all of this thetranslators will have the last word.There is beginning to be call for a face-to-face meeting of the translatorsto work out consistency in details of translation and prosody. There are noconflicts or disagreements. But as one man wrote recently, "Distance issuch a difficulty. I would dearly love to have a time with the wholecommittee to discuss some of the questions and suggestions raised incorrespondence." Your Chairman senses that such a meeting would be avery great encouragement to the men, and a very important stimulus. If wecould only meet once now that we are 1/3 finished and then again oncetowards the end of the 150 chapters, it would be a powerful stimulus andpractical help and encouragement to all the men. The work would begreatly expedited. But if that meeting were to be held in the U.S.,transportation alone would cost $2,834 for the two men from Australia,and $2,166 for the three men from Ireland. Total costs just for transportationwould be approximately $5,000. Even if there would be just onerepresentative from each branch of the church, transportation costs wouldbe $2,146. But where would we find that money? Your Chairman hastalked twice now in Australia with the translators there and will (Lordwilling) be talking with those in Ireland later this year, all at no cost to theChurch because he was there on other business. But he is not a translatorand they need to talk—as translators—face to face. Please help us to findsome way of accomplishing this. The new translation of Psalms forsinging will have an international testimony when it is finished and so isworthy of extraordinary effort. But where could we find the money forthis?Surely the time is rightfor extraordinary effort. Not only throughoutAmerica, but all over the world, there is urgent need for church music thatis good and pleasing to God. The old hymns and paraphrases are now