The Rev. Juhee Lee, Kate Kim and Christine Song (on violin), Cheongmoo Kang (on bass clarinet), Da Eun Ryu (on piano) and Beverly Rathbun (on organ) record free hymns and special music for the Lenten season. Photo courtesy of the Rev. Yohan Go.
Two Korean United Methodist clergy came together to record free hymns and special music for use during the Lenten season and on Easter Sunday.
The Revs. Yohan Go and Juhee Lee of the New England Conference worked with musicians to record 47 songs and make them available on Google Drive for any church that needs music to use freely.
All of those songs are from United Methodist hymnals, so any church with a CCLI license can use them for its online worship without worrying about copyright.
In the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic, most churches halted in-person worship and replaced it with online services.
Unlike churches that may have music ministers on staff, smaller churches often had difficulty in preparing and choosing music for their online worship service.
While there is a lot of music on YouTube, there are legal limits to the use of music for worship. In some cases, use of music is limited by region, even if the music source was purchased by the church, and this has led to some churches limiting their music options due to concerns about legal disputes.