Does your church sing the hymn Jerusalem on St. George’s Day? The church I grew up in always did, but not the one we attend now.
For those of you not familiar, Jerusalem is a very English hymn and AFAIK only associated with the Church of England and some of its offshoots. The words are from the William Blake poem, And did those feet in ancient time and the music by Sir Hubert Parry.
Yes, in the England of the 50s and 60s, my youth, it was sung in Church of England churches on St George’s Day. I can’t speak to later years as I drifted away from the church.
American Episcopalian here. I couldn’t even tell you what either St. George’s Day or the song Jerusalem were before I looked it up so take that as a no. The U.S. doesn’t celebrate St. George’s Day in my experience.
I vaguely remember the priest mentioning it was St. George’s Day. That church was considered a “High Church” and with a lot of peculiar little rituals. For one, the front door, that opened into the cathedral, was only used a couple of times a year.
Since the OP is asking about personal experiences, let’s move this to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
That hymn does not appear in the Episcopal hymnal (USA) and did not appear in the 1940 hymnal either. The tune Jerusalem does show up in the current (1982) hymn book, but a different, more modern, less nationalist set of words (“oh day of peace that dimly shines”).
Possible it is in an alternate book of hymns authorized by the church but I kind of doubt it…it is awfully England specific. I may have heard it once as an anthem many years ago but would not swear to it.
Have never celebrated St George Day and have no clue about when it is.
It was used more as a recessional, so no singing or hymnal required. Though, I do remember using the hymnal for it and it may have been the 1982 version.
Interesting how they changed the lyrics not to be so not to be so English.
I’m not aware of the CofE making much of this. In England, the song is particularly associated with the Women’s Institute, who sing it at every meeting, and with the Last Night of the Proms, where it’s part of the traditional party element of communal singing to round off the concert series. It’s also used as the anthem for the England rugby union team, and occasionally other England-specific sports teams. But we don’t, on the whole, make much of St George’s day, despite the odd (and I do mean “odd”) enthusiasts’ attempts to do so.
It was in the old hymnal we had in the Anglican Church of Canada when I was growing up, but I don’t remember singing it. Certainly nothing for St George’s Day. That’s English not Canadian.
Don’t know if it’s in the current hymnal. I’ll check next time.
ETA: I associate it more with “Chariots of Fire” than church.
I doubt it was a change to be “less English.” The lyrics of “O day of peace…” really aren’t anything like Blake’s.
More likely, it was
a) a new hymn written to fit that particular melody or
b) a new hymn written simply as poetry, and someone–not necessarily the poet–realized it fit nicely with “Jerusalem.”
As you no doubt know, there’s been lots of cross-pollination in the hymnody world in which hymns are sung to whatever tune will fit. A good tune is a good tune, a good hymn is a good hymn, and sometimes you get unexpected synergy by pairing ones that weren’t necessarily meant to go together…
It is sung at my daughter’s (nominally Anglican) school on St George’s Day, but that might have to do with the fact that local anglophilia is strong, he’s the school’s patron saint and the SA church is still outright Anglican.
It’s in my old (Aus/Scot) Presbyterian hymn book, but no Aus Presbyterian ever sung it in my presence.
I’m not surprised it’s dissappearing from England (sigh). The whole church appears to be moving to toneless repetition. There was a time when any English tourist would have recognised the melody. Not actually known the words of course 
But could have had a crack at it if provided with a copy of the lyrics.
I attended the same school about ten years ago, and was always amused by the singing of Jerusalem, due to my early exposure to Monty Python.
I recall a local dispute which was reported in England, a few years ago. It occurred in an Anglican parish where the vicar was on the more extreme end of the evangelical wing of the Church of England. There was planned, a special service (maybe for St. George’s Day – I forget) in which the prominent lay-people of the parish wanted the hymn Jerusalem to be sung. The vicar however vetoed the hymn’s inclusion, considering its text to be contrary to rightful Christian doctrine. Killjoy though he may have been, his position here is understandable: William Blake’s Christianity was of an odd and idiosyncratic kind.
The UK’s highly-chauvinist conservative tabloid newspapers, great exponents of recreational outrage, took this story and ran with it. Thick-headedly, they thoroughly missed the point – baying in fury against a perceivedly “trendy leftist” vicar forbidding Jerusalem because of its patriotic sentiments, when in fact he was a religious conservative whose problem with the hymn, was its theologically unorthodox and “heretical” sentiments.
It’s not disappearing from England, far from it - it’s just that it has never been predominantly associated with a church service, which was the question the OP posed. Parry’s setting appeared as a secular patriotic song in WW1, and that’s the context in which most of us see, hear and sing it.