Printing the psalm

The psalm is the part of the booklet parishes most often get wrong — not legally, but typographically.

Which psalter you may print

The Common Worship psalter is Common Worship material, and the same local-use permission applies: unaltered, not sold, parish name on the cover, acknowledgement included. That is the straightforward path and the one most Church of England parishes take.

Other psalters are other people’s property. The Coverdale psalter from the Book of Common Prayer is Crown copyright in perpetuity in the United Kingdom, administered by Cambridge University Press — in practice parishes reproduce it routinely, but it is not simply public domain. Modern pointings, responsorial settings and metrical paraphrases are each their own copyright.

Setting it on the page

• Verse numbers help the congregation stay together, especially where verses are omitted.
• The pointing mark — usually a mid-line asterisk or diamond — marks the break for said or sung recitation. Keep it; a congregation that has learned to pause there will stumble without it.
• Alternate verses in bold if the psalm is said antiphonally, matching however your congregation already reads the bold in the rest of the booklet.
• The Gloria Patri at the end if your parish says it, set apart from the psalm text itself.

How much to print

The lectionary often gives a selection — “Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19”. Print what you will actually use. Printing the whole psalm and expecting the congregation to skip verses mid-flow is how a said psalm falls apart.

Questions

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