Last night I spent three hours putting together a list of the hymns and songs, along with authors and copyright details, that had been used on the service sheets I've produced in the last six months so that my CCL records person could update the computerised returns.  I am not sure that all this data is required to enable the task to be done or why the service sheets themselves don't give enough information, but there you are, this is the place it is with its own delightful quirks!

I pride myself on not repeating hymns or songs too often, and keep my own records of what we sing and when.  A typical Sunday will use between 8 and 10 items, so the six month list was rather long.  I almost envied the churches with worship groups have a repertoire of six songs (all using the same three chords! (miaow)) whose CCL returns must be very simple to do.  I even wondered if Isaac Marlow had a point when he said we should sing inwardly in our hearts and, since he opposed pre-printed forms, therefore negating the whole business.

This year I'll just have to be more disciplined and match my own records to the CCL person's needs so that I can simply give her a photocopy of my own sheets (which I update weekly) every month or so.  At least this week with a united service for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity I can put an SEP  (someone else's problem) field around it and it'll therefore go away.