Downcast Souls | Expectant Hearts

This is our most ambitious project yet. A double album covering the contrasting but complementary themes of lament and hope.

The events of recent years have brought into sharp focus the need for language in our worship which addresses the difficult things of our lives. Songs that are honest expressions of sorrow, struggle and pain, that give voice to our questions and complaints in the pattern of Biblical lament, and that offer words of solace to the suffering.

At the same time, our experience of holding on to hope in Christ when all around is shaking has shown the importance of a clear and confident articulation of that hope in our worship. We have a future which is part of God's story and finds rich expression in the pages of Scripture. Our songs, at their best, can explore and celebrate this richness, encouraging our confidence.

Congregations and worshippers need both these things. While they can sometimes be two sides of the same coin they also need to exist alongside each other in our worship, even when it is difficult to reconcile the two. We do not always need to find neat resolutions, nor should we shy away from either. 

Downcast Souls / Expectant Hearts is a double album project which seeks to address both these themes head on. At the same time. Our goal with this project has been to create two complementary albums which speak with different voices while also addressing each other. We have sourced songs from our own writers and from a wide pool of writers across the world, working our way through hundreds of submissions, to assemble what we believe is the strongest possible collection.

We will be recording the albums in May & June 2023, to be released in the early autumn, along with all the usual accompanying resources. The total cost of the project will be around £22,500. We have the first £10,000 covered by our charity funds but we're inviting you to help us reach the goal of an additional £12,500 through this crowdfunder. If we happen to exceed the goal amount then it will allow us to use some of the existing charity funds for other important projects.

NB this artwork is for the crowdunder only, the final album covers have yet to be created!

Preorder

You can make an advanced purchase of digital or physical albums, songbooks and other resources. You are also welcome to make an additional donation on top of the pre-order minimums. (Please note that we're adding shipping separately this time - the increasingly global nature of our community means we could otherwise inadvertantly swallow up large chunks of the budget on postage!)

Donate

You may prefer to simply make a donation towards the costs of the project. As a registered charity we are able to claim Gift Aid on any donations made by UK taxpayers, including any additional amounts added to pre-orders.

Pledge to fundraise

Could you run your own fundraiser to help us reach our goal? A cake sale, a sponsored unicycle ride or a Facebook fundraiser? Anything really! Our charity is called the Song & Hymn Writers Foundation, and you can link to us from several of the usual fundraising platforms. If you pledge to fundraise we're asking you to choose an amount of £100 or above that you will (as far as possible) commit to achieving by your own means and a date by which you could then contribute the funds you've raised. Because each fundraiser will be different, we'll communicate with you individually regarding the finer details to make sure things run smoothly.
 

If you'd prefer to make a contribution offline, via bank transfer, or via CAF or Stewardship do drop us a line and all can be arranged. We can still manually update the crowdfunder to keep track of our progress!