Where to find music suggestions for church services

There are many resources that can be used to choose music to use in regular church services.

This is a list of resources providing English-language suggestions.

It is grouped by denomination, and also shows the national focus of each list.

Roman Catholic

• 
  St Louis Jesuits Sunday web-site
  The Music of Sunday's Mass page has some helpful links, including "Sunday's music in parishes" which lists the music being used in a number of American parishes each week.

• National Association of Pastoral Musicians planning calendar   
  Suggestions from a membership-based American Catholic church musician support organisation.  This is a members-only resource - you must join NMP to get access to it, and sign in to the website:  if you are not signed in, you will get a 404-error.
  

• Canadian Bishop's Conference:

Suggestions from the Canadian Book of Worship

 

• CanticaNOVA publications 
  Music and liturgical suggestions for Year A,  Year B   and Year C, from an American company specialising in quality / traditional music.  Strong emphasis on Latin and official texts.
  
  
  
  
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  Newman Centre for Faith and Reason
  Suggestions from a parish / education centre which is based in Ireland but operates under the auspices of a large American Catholic university.  Suggestions tend to be from American publishers, but based on material from the last 30 years that is now well-known and accessible to parishes with more limited musical resources.

• 
  Young-Catholics
  This American website (owner / source unknown) has complete sets of resources.  Music suggestions link to Amazon Music - and hopefully you can work out the composer from there (works better for readers in the USA).  Suggestions are a mix of traditional hymns, contemporary songs, and popular/folk style hymns - and are suitable for all ages.
  
  
  

• Liturgy Music Planner
  A set of suggestions from the Archdiocese of Southwark, in England.   Includes traditional hymns, and also more popular folk-hymn genre suggestions.
  
  

• Word to Worship
  Website set up by an American software engineer and volunteer worship leader, giving scripture-linked suggestions for contemporary style songs and hymns based on the day's readings.  The approach (list all songs tagged for any of the day's readings) sometimes gives odd suggestions   (eg "O Come O Come Emmanuel" for the Transfiguration in August).

• 
  Ignatius Pew Missal
  Short lists of suggestions from an American missal publisher, whose listings include the "Propers", ie entrance and Communion antiphons.     Mainly traditional hymns.

• Liturgical Song Suggestions
  Ideas from a major Australian publisher, with a very strong focus on Australian composers.

• 
  Soundboard:  Setting the Tone
  Suggestions from a American publications company, focusing on the contemporary Christian music (CCM) genre, now incorporating some material from another major American Catholic publisher.
  (January 2024 - appears not to have been updated recently - leaving the listing here in case it comes back to life).

• 
  Music Liturgy and ME
  A liturgy planner (produced by an individual) based on two major hymn books which are used in Catholic parishes in England:  Decani's Laudate and McCrimmon's Celebration for Everyone. 

• 
  Liturgical Song
  Suggestions prepared by an Australian company (founded by an experienced pastoral / liturgical musician), which design, build and publish print and digital resources for Church organisations, with a special focus on website content development related to liturgy and music.

• Music for Liturgy 
  Suggestions from the Diocese of Auckland, New Zealand.   Includes Maori and English language suggestions.

• The Summit On-line 
  Suggestions from the diocese of Melbourne, Australia.  Includes material from Australian and international sources, and various genres.
  
  

• LiturgyShare
  
  
  A website built by a person with experience providing music in small, rural Australian Catholic congregations.  Aimed at places with limited resources who want to sing some traditional-style English metric hymns or chanted responsorial psalms.  Hymn content is inspired by Australia’s Catholic Worship Book II.  Suggestions are being added week-by week.

• Free-use Sunday Hymn Suggestions  
  This site's own listing of hymns that match the Sunday reading themes.  Based in Ireland, includes suggestions ideas from any  English-speaking sources.

• 
  GIA Publications - Planning pages
  Suggestions from a major American publisher's current catalog

Psalms and service music

• 
  Music for Mass  
  Settings of the psalm and gospel acclamation produced by a musician in the United Kingdom.   Includes settings for both UK and US approved scripture translations. Focuses on simple, singable tunes.

• Bear Music
  Settings of the Psalms and other antiphons from a liturgist-composer based in the UK. 

• Modern Psalter
  Contemporary settings of the psalms, verbatim from the Catholic lectionary and designed for liturgical use.  They are written by a volunteer team with members in the UK, US, Indonesia and possibly elsewhere.  Each psalm-setting has a PDF songsheet and MP3 recording.

• PraySing Ministry
  Settings of the Psalms from the Philippines.  Some in Tagalog, some in English.

Resources that don't offer hymn suggestions directly, but provide information about the day's readings and other prayers include:

• The Directory on Homelitics
  A listing of key themes from the readings, and links to Catechism sections related to them.  
  More about it, including links.

Anglican / Episcopalian:   Church of England-Ireland-Scotland-etc

• 
  Oremus Hymnal
  A hymnal-based site that aimed to be "the comprehensive source of information about the extensive tradition of Anglican and English-language hymnody".
  The main site has now been removed, but music suggestions based on the Revised Common Lectionary remain (although none of the links work) - these lists are very long.
  Year A
  Year B
  Year C
  
  

• Weekly Worship / Starters for Sunday
  Resources and suggestions from the Church of Scotland
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Church of Ireland Music Resources
  
  Extensive suggestions from this island of Ireland member of the Anglican communion, based closely on the day's readings.
  Use the calendar in the left-hand sidebar to select a specific day.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Local Shared Ministry Resources
  Suggestions from a New Zealand based ministry support organsation, focused on smaller churches

Methodist

• 
  United Methodist General Book of Discipleship Planning Calendar
  A Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) based calendar produced by the American United Methodist Church's General Board of Discipleship (GBOD)./li>

• Singing the Faith Plus
  Suggestions from the Methodist Church in the United Kingdom

Lutheran

• LCA Worship Planner  Produced by the Lutheran Church of Australia, this is described as "Everything lay-readers need to prepare worship" - including hymn suggestions.
  
  
  
• 
  Lutheran CORE
  Suggestions from an (American based?) network for confessing Lutherans, which supports and connects Lutheran individuals and congregations who seek to live in accord with Biblical and confessional teachings and practices.  Possibly an unofficial site from the church perspective?   But comprehensive.

United Church of Christ

• 
  Life in Liturgy
  Suggestions from an American (West Virginian) Church of Christ, which aims to strengthen their own  congregations ... and their sisters and brothers in faith throughout the ecumenical Church.
  Organsied as a blog - so if you are planning forwards, you need to scroll back almost three years to find the equivalent week.

Non-denominational RCL-based resources

• 
  Singing from the Lectionary
  A blog with weekly song, hymn and recorded music suggestions and resources for worship - based on the Revised Common Lectionary.  These are based on suggestions made to a Uniting Church, by a person with a background in Methodist hymn-singing, Scripture in Song, Praise and Worship bands, African American Gospel, Taize, Iona and African song, American hymnody and Sacred Harp singing, and the Catholic Mass and cantored Psalms, who aims for songs that are beautiful, intelligent, and inclusive.
  
  
  

• Worship and Preaching
  Resources for preachers and worship leaders using the Revised Common Lectionary - prepared by an Australian academic and retired Uniting Church minister.

• The Text This Week
  Providing "a wide variety of resources for study and liturgy based on the 3-year Revised Common Lectionary" cycle.  It presents "a diverse variety of resources for scripture study, reflection and liturgy, and purposefully do not restrict the resources to any particular theological/ideological position".  Does not include music suggestions specifically - but does include an index to sources of artwork and also movies.

• The Billabong
  Prepared by a retired Australian Uniting Church minister, this site has reflections and hymns suggestions for each week, based on the Revised Common Lectionary.
  (Jan 2024 - this site appears to be not working - it's left here for now in case it comes back)

• re:Worship
  A set of scriptural resources, suitable for Lectionary and non-Lectionary worship, prepared by an Assistant Professor of Worship and Music, Canadian Mennonite University.

• 
  Together to Celebrate
  Prepared by an Australian member of the Uniting Church, who has a background in children's youth and family ministry, and hymn-book editing.

• 
  Forest Refuge Lectionary Music
  A set of RCL-organised resources prepared by a classically-trained American musician with substantial experience in Latin America.

This is not a complete list: if you know other websites that could be included, please leave a message in the Comments box near the bottom of the page.