A hymn planner that remembers what your parish sang
Hymnwise is a free hymn planner that runs in your browser. Enter your hymnal, pick hymns for each Sunday by slot, and see beside each one when you last sang it and whether it or its tune comes round again too soon. The church year is worked out for you. Print the hymn board, the bulletin insert and the music list.
Last sung, beside every choice
Every service you plan becomes history. Choose a hymn and see the date it was last sung, how often this year, and a warning if it is already planned three weeks from now or its tune is heard under another text next month.
The papers the week needs
Big numbers for the hymn board, the week's music for the bulletin, the quarter's list for clergy and choir, the year's hymns sung by hymnal, and a folded bulletin built from your own order of service.
Your plans never leave this browser
Hymnals, plans, readings and names in your orders of service are stored only in this browser. There is no account and nothing to install. Export a backup whenever you like, locked with a passphrase if you want.
How it works
- Enter your hymnal in the library: type the numbers you use, import the index you keep in a spreadsheet, or start from the public domain starter index.
- Open the calendar for the quarter. Each Sunday and feast is named, with its season, colour, lectionary year and proper.
- Plan a service: pick a hymn for each slot by number or title. Last-sung dates, repeat warnings and season suggestions appear as you go.
- Print the hymn board slip and the bulletin insert for the week, and the music list for the quarter.
New to planning this way? Start with how to plan hymns for a quarter, tracking when hymns were last sung or all the guides.
The church year, computed
Easter is worked out with the Gregorian computus and checked against the dates the US Naval Observatory publishes for 89 years. Advent, Ash Wednesday, Holy Week, Ascension, Pentecost and Trinity follow from it, and Sundays are named the prayer book way (Propers after Pentecost), counted after Pentecost, or in Ordinary Time. How each is worked out is in computing the church year.
Readings are yours to type, paste or import from a file you keep: lectionary tables belong to their publishers and are not included.
What it is not
- Hymnwise ships no hymn texts, no lectionary tables and no liturgical texts: you type or import your own, under your own licences.
- It does not suggest music from a publisher's catalogue or sell licences; it plans from the hymnals you own and keeps your history.
- It is not a copyright report service. The annual report lists what you sang, for you to report under your own licence.
- Hymnwise is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to any church, denomination, diocese, hymnal publisher, lectionary body or licensing service, including the Consultation on Common Texts, Augsburg Fortress, Church Publishing, GIA, OCP, Hope Publishing, Hymnary.org, OneLicense and CCLI.