Permissions

Quick Links for Permissions

Before submitting a permissions or licensing request to The Pilgrim Press, please contact these permissions outlets:

If you have any questions or requests not answered through these outlets, please email pilgrim@ucc.org. The Pilgrim Press charges a $25 processing fee to offset the cost of this service, and may charge more depending on the particular request.

What to Know about Hymn Permissions

1. The Pilgrim Press doesn't own every hymn it publishes.

Hymnals published by The Pilgrim Press include copyrighted works (hymns and liturgies) that are owned by other publishers and artists. 

To learn who holds the copyright for a hymn, locate the copyright/credits information in a hymnal. (In The New Century Hymnal, this info begins on page 888.) 

2. The Pilgrim Press cannot grant permission for the use of hymns (or parts of hymns) it doesn't own.

The copyrighted parts of a hymn can include the words, the translation of words, the four-voice harmonization, the accompaniment arrangement, etc. A single hymn can have multiple copyrighted parts.

If The Pilgrim Press does not own a hymn's copyright, then it does not have the right to grant permission for others to use (e.g. stream, reprint, adapt) that hymn.

3. The Pilgrim Press partners with One License for hymn permissions.

Every copyright holder of a hymn (or hymn part) makes their own decisions about how to manage permissions to use their work. Requests to use works not owned by The Pilgrim Press must be directed to the appropriate copyright owners.

For hymns (or parts of hymns) owned by The Pilgrim Press, visit our partner One License to request permissions for reprinting, projecting, and/or streaming individual hymns in worship.

Also review a hymnal's copyright page for basic information about how hymns may be used.

What to Know about Book Permissions

The Pilgrim Press partners with Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) to make text excerpts of our books available for licensed use in classrooms and publications. The CCC Marketplace is a useful starting point for one-time use requests.

CCC also offers content licenses for businesses, publishers, and academia, which can be especially critical to support digital and remote environments. See, for example, CCC's Education Continuity License.

Need to Learn More?

Review this excellent FAQ on ucc.org, which answers common questions about hymnals published by The Pilgrim Press.

If you have general questions about how copyright is relevant to your church, check out Copyright Compliance Basics for Churches on ucc.org.

You can also watch this recorded conversation — "Legal Considerations for Online Worship" — between Pilgrim's publisher Rachel Hackenberg, UCC General Counsel Heather Kimmel, Minister for Worship & Gospel Arts Susan Blain, and Faith INFO team leader Chris Davies.