‘Sing Out Love’: How the UUA’s Virtual Hymnal was Born

For years, Unitarian Universalists had been asking for a new hymnal. The familiar ones—Singing the Living Tradition, published by the Unitarian Universalist Association in 1993; its teal supplement, Singing the Journey; and the Spanish-language supplement, Las voces del camino—are well loved by many UUs, but as printed books, they are static and fixed at the point of time at which they were published.

What the faith needed was a new kind of hymnal, one that expresses Unitarian Universalism’s ongoing transformation as well as the yearning for songs from a broader group of composers, said Rev. Erika Hewitt, the UUA’s minister of Worship Arts. And so, the idea of a virtual hymnal was born. On August 6, 2025, after five years of effort with a focus on relationship, the UUA launched the faith’s first virtual hymnal: Sing Out Love.

An ever-expanding compendium of music, Sing Out Love is nothing short of groundbreaking. Every month, five new songs, hymns, or chants chosen by a song selection team are added to the hymnal, along with a rich collection of resources for each, including a composer biography, contextual information, the song transposed into every musical key, and much more to help music directors and others choose songs.

“Since ours is a faith that continually changes to meet the world’s challenges, the hunger for a new hymnal reflected our collective longing to both sing our living, evolving values and to weave in emerging gifts of more composers,” said Hewitt, who leads the project. “From our first meeting in early 2023, the Virtual Hymnal Task Force delighted in meeting this challenge: to build an accessible, high-tech container robust enough to hold the abundance of music that’s been called forth by our song selection team.”

Rather than purchasing hard-copy hymnals, congregations and other organizations subscribe to Sing Out Love on a monthly, annual, or three-year basis, with three tiers of fees based on an organization’s size (e.g., $25/month for congregations of 150 members or fewer).

Hewitt says one misconception people have had is that virtual hymnal users sit and stare at their electronic devices during a service and watch or listen to prerecorded music. On the contrary, says Hewitt, “the virtual hymnal’s multimedia resources allow worship leaders, musicians, and choirs to engage music more fully and bring it to life for their congregations.”

Many hymnal offerings include a short sample recording, which allows those searching for new music to get a sense for the sound of the pieces; the samples are not, however, to be used during gatherings. The idea is that professional musicians will continue to be hired, and choirs and the congregation will continue to sing the songs, as they always have. “Our professional musicians deserve to have their skills and expertise and livelihoods honored,” said Hewitt.

Discovering New Ways to Sing Out Love

As of early November, 267 UU congregations and organizations have subscribed, Hewitt said.

“I’ve always thought that the beloved teal, gray, and purple hymnals sometimes fell short in addressing the ministerial needs of the twenty-first century,” said Saunder Choi, music director at the UU Congregation of Santa Monica, California. “Many of the hymns felt outdated. I was excited for something new!”

Choi was invited to try out a prototype of the virtual hymnal in early 2024 and has used it several times during services since Sing Out Love formally launched in August.

“So far, the choir and congregation are liking the new songs that have been introduced,” he said, although some congregants have requested that the sheet music be projected, which he is willing to try. Choi has now joined the hymnal’s song selection team.

Susan Harper is music director of the UU Congregation of Lawrence, Kansas. Like Choi, she is a member of Association for UU Music Ministries (AUUMM) and participated in the early testing of the virtual hymnal. What attracts her to the new model? “Access to new music that will not be in a published (paper) hymnal,” she said. “I think the primary benefits have been access to new music and the elimination of the need for me to verify copyrights, et cetera.”

Since the congregation doesn’t use PowerPoint for presentations, she translates the lyrics and melody line onto Google Slides so that people who read music—or just understand when notes go up and down—can follow along, she said. “For hymns that are in the two printed hymnals, we have them available on the cart in the rear of the sanctuary for those who wish to use them. Many do. For those hymns, we just use our ‘vault’ of lyric slides I’ve already prepared.”

Harper acknowledges that some of the new songs are “really challenging, especially rhythmically,” which may make them more appropriate for solo or ensemble performances than for larger groups, but says: “The congregation really enjoys singing some of the more accessible pieces. It’s good to have new choices!”

Sing Out Love comes with accessibility features including Braille Ready Files (BRF) for people who use the Braille system. Camille Hatton, consulting manager of Sing Out Love, said they hired a skilled technical development team who designed the hymnal to be both straightforward and “extremely accessible.”

New Licensing System Designed with Composers and Musicians in Mind

Importantly, the virtual hymnal employs an innovative way to compensate composers. Instead of a royalty based on how often a song is used, composers are paid a one-time fee for each of their songs (and some composers offered some of their songs for free, as an expression of their support for the faith).

The task force (all of whom were AUUMM members) spent much of 2024 assembling panels and doing interviews and in-depth research with composers and musicians, many of them quite well known, to develop the licensing agreement, Hatton said. The fees reflect an ethic of care and responsibility, including fair and equitable licensing fees for the artists, staff to maintain and update the hymnal, and hosting/technology fees, Hewitt said.

Artists maintain the copyright to their songs and can publish them elsewhere, too, if they wish, “which is a big difference from some major publishing companies,” said Hatton.

As far as Hewitt and Hatton know, this is the first time such a compensation system has been used for composers. “No one else is doing this!” said Hatton.

The new licensing system is a benefit to congregations and others, who don’t have to keep track of how often they use a particular song in order to pay royalties. “Everything we’ve done is done in relationship with Unitarian Universalists, especially UU musicians,” Hewitt said. “Saying permissions are automatically embedded in the subscription sounds like a legal statement, but to us it is a relational statement.”

Composers may submit compositions to Sing Out Love for consideration by the song selection team. The review process uses the progressive stack method where the song selection team prioritizes submissions from people with marginalized identities, although they know nothing else about the composer, including their names.

And Hatton and Rev. Dr. Everett Howe, a community minister affiliated with First UU Church of San Diego and a member of AUUMM, are working to get as many of the hymns from the hard copy hymnals added to Sing Out Love also mining the public domain to find older hymns for which copyright no longer applies. “It’s a constant process that’s incredibly rewarding and incredibly labor intensive,” Hatton said.

“We want it to feel joyful and easier to engage with our faith,” said Hewitt. “Our hope is that Unitarian Universalists can’t imagine our faith without Sing Out Love.”

Click here for more information, including how to access guided tours on how to use Sing Out Love.