St Peter’s Resource Centre

Using the ACNY Music Library: A Guide for Small Anglican Churches

A practical, step-by-step guide to one of the best free worship resources available to Anglican parishes — and how to get the most out of it if you don’t have a regular musician.

Published April 2026 · St Peter’s Anglican Church, Château-d’Oex

Why we’re publishing this. St Peter’s is a small Anglican parish in the Swiss Alps, and we know how many other small churches face the same challenge: a faithful congregation, a beautiful building, and no organist. As part of our Resource Centre we’re sharing practical guides like this one to help fellow churches make the most of the excellent free tools available to us all. If you have feedback or questions, please write to info@stpeters.ch.

What ACNY offers

The Church of England’s A Church Near You (ACNY) Resource Hub gives every Anglican parish free access to professionally recorded hymns, anthems and chants, produced by Andrew Earis (Director of Music at St Martin-in-the-Fields) in collaboration with the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM). Collections are released a season at a time — Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Trinity — with several hymns plus a chant and an anthem provided for each Sunday, chosen to match the lectionary readings.

Since launch, parishes have downloaded these recordings more than 30,000 times. It has become the go-to backing-track resource for small churches without a regular musician.

Crucially, ACNY also provides the matching lyrics as Word documents — one document per Sunday containing the words for all the hymns chosen for that day — so the music and the words are always a guaranteed match for your service sheet.

This guide walks you through getting set up, downloading tracks and lyric documents, understanding the licensing, and building playlists you can play from a Mac or iPhone in church.

1. Registering for the Resource Hub

The Resource Hub is free, but you need to be a registered editor of your church’s ACNY page.

Go to achurchnearyou.com and find your church (search by name or postcode).
On your church page, click “Edit this page” in the top right. If no one in your church is yet registered, follow the link to “Become an editor” — the incumbent (vicar/priest in charge) will need to approve the request, and ACNY will email a confirmation.
Once you’re an editor, the incumbent can grant editor rights to up to 5 people total (e.g. the music coordinator, a churchwarden, the service leader). Do this from the “Manage editors” screen on your church page.
Sign in at achurchnearyou.com/login — you’ll now see a Resource Hub link in the top menu.

Tip: Use a shared email (e.g. music@yourchurch.org) for at least one editor account so access doesn’t get lost when people move on.

2. Understanding the licences

ACNY recordings are not all under the same licence. For each track, ACNY tells you which of three categories it falls into, and you’ll see the relevant code printed next to the title:

PD — Public Domain. Use freely. No licence needed. Most traditional hymns (“Crown him with many crowns”, “King of glory, king of peace”) are PD.
CCLI [number] — covered by your CCLI Church Copyright Licence. Almost every C of E parish already holds this. The number is the song’s CCLI ID, which you’ll need to log in your CCLI usage report.
OL [number] — covered by One License (oneLicense.net). One License is a separate scheme that covers a different catalogue of publishers (Iona Community, Taizé, GIA, etc.). UK churches have historically used CCLI more than One License, but it’s worth knowing it exists. Annual cost is similar to CCLI and banded by congregation size.

Many ACNY tracks carry both a CCLI and an OL number — meaning either licence covers you. A few are OL only (e.g. some Iona/Taizé material), so if you want full access to the library, holding both licences gives you the widest range. If you only have CCLI, just stick to the PD and CCLI-numbered tracks.

For livestreaming or online recordings of services that include these tracks, you also need:

The CCLI Streaming Licence (add-on to CCLI), and/or
The One License Podcast/Streaming add-on.

Without the streaming add-on you can still play the tracks in the building during worship; you just can’t include them in a YouTube or Facebook upload.

Action items:

Check your CCLI status at uk.ccli.com.
Decide whether One License (onelicense.net) is worth adding for the OL-only tracks.
Each time you use a track in a service, log it in CCLI/OL — this is what funds the songwriters and keeps the licence valid.

3. Downloading hymns from the Resource Hub

Sign in to ACNY and click Resource Hub in the top menu.
Choose “Music downloads” → then “Collections”.
Pick the season you need (e.g. Sundays of Epiphany, Year A). Each collection covers several Sundays at once. Within it you’ll see, for each Sunday:
3–5 hymns chosen to match that Sunday’s readings
A chant and an anthem
A “Words for Hymns for [Sunday name]” entry — the Word document containing all the lyrics for that Sunday
A licence code next to each track: PD, CCLI [number], or OL [number]
An asterisk (*) marks tracks that are new recordings
To download: keep scrolling past the track list to the bottom of the page. You’ll see a “Download options” box.
Tick the checkboxes next to the items you want — both the MP3s and the matching “Words for Hymns” Word document — then click the download button. ACNY bundles them into a single zip file.
Older collections remain available in the archive, so you can browse back through previous years and church seasons. After a few seasons you’ll have built up a sizeable permanent library.

Tip — grab the whole Sunday in one go. When you tick the boxes, select all the hymns plus the Words document for the Sunday you’re preparing. You’ll have everything you need (music + lyrics) in one zip download. Don’t forget the chant and anthem if you might use them.

Naming tip. Rename downloads to something readable like 2026-04-19 Easter 2 — Crown Him With Many Crowns.mp3. ACNY’s default filenames are cryptic. Save them in a folder called Church Music/ACNY Hymns/ organised by season.

4. Lyrics for your service sheets

Good news: ACNY gives you the lyrics too. In every Sunday’s track list you’ll see an entry called “Words for Hymns for [Sunday name]” — for example, “Words for Hymns for The Baptism of Christ”. This is a single Word document (.docx) containing the lyrics for all the hymns chosen for that Sunday, in order, with author and copyright credits already in place.

This is the single biggest reason ACNY is better than other free music libraries — the music and the words are a guaranteed match (right tune, right verses, right modern/traditional wording), so there’s no detective work.

Workflow

When you’re picking your tracks at the bottom of the page (see Section 3), make sure you also tick the “Words for Hymns…” checkbox for that Sunday.
The .docx arrives in the same zip download as the MP3s.
Open it in Microsoft Word, Pages, or Google Docs.
Copy and paste only the hymns you’ve chosen into your service sheet template, in the right order.
Keep the credits and footnotes that come with the lyrics — they cover your copyright reporting.

Copyright footer on service sheets

The ACNY Word document already includes the per-hymn copyright credits. As good practice, also add a footer to every printed sheet:

Music and hymn texts reproduced under CCLI Licence No. [your number] (and One License No. [your number] where applicable), from the A Church Near You Resource Hub.

And remember to log each hymn you actually use in your CCLI / One License account — that’s how the licence stays valid and the songwriters get paid.

If you need a hymn ACNY hasn’t covered

Occasionally you’ll want a hymn that isn’t in the current ACNY collection — a favourite for a baptism, wedding, or funeral. Two reliable backup sources for lyrics:

Hymnary.org — free, searchable, tens of thousands of hymn texts with author, tune name, and scripture references. Most traditional hymns are public domain.
CCLI SongSelect — a paid add-on to your CCLI licence (~£40/year) giving clean lyric sheets and chord charts for almost every hymn and worship song in print.

5. Setting up a playlist on a Mac

The simplest, most reliable approach is the built-in Music app (formerly iTunes).

Open Music on your Mac.
Drag your downloaded MP3s into the Music window — they’ll appear in your library.
File → New → Playlist — name it for the service date, e.g. Sunday 19 April — Easter 2.
Drag the hymns into the playlist in the order they appear in the service.
Right-click each track → Get Info → set the title, artist, and (optionally) artwork so it’s clear on screen during the service.
Crucial setting: turn off shuffle and off auto-play / continue playing. You want the track to stop at the end so the service can continue. In Music: menu Controls → Repeat → Off, Controls → Shuffle → Off.

Test the night before. Always play the full playlist through your church speakers the day before the service. Volume levels vary between recordings.

Optional: a master “All Hymns” library

Keep one big playlist called All ACNY Hymns sorted alphabetically. When you’re planning a service you can search it quickly to see what you already own.

6. Setting up a playlist on iPhone or iPad

If you want to play from a phone or iPad in church (often easier — you can carry it to the front):

Option A — sync from your Mac

Build the playlist in Music on your Mac (as above).
Sign in to iCloud Music Library on both Mac and iPhone (Settings → Music → Sync Library = ON).
The playlist appears automatically on the iPhone, in the Music app under Library → Playlists.
Tap the playlist → tap the download cloud icon to save it for offline playback — essential if your church Wi-Fi is patchy.

Option B — directly on the iPhone

Email the MP3s to yourself, or save them to iCloud Drive / Dropbox.
Open the file on your iPhone → Share → Save to Files.
Use the free VLC for Mobile app (App Store) — it plays MP3s directly from the Files app and lets you build playlists without needing iCloud Music Library at all. Many churches prefer VLC because it’s simpler and free.

Connecting to the church sound system

Best: plug the headphone jack (or USB-C / Lightning adapter) into the church mixer with a 3.5 mm-to-jack cable. Reliable, no dropouts.
Acceptable: Bluetooth to a speaker — but always test first; Bluetooth occasionally cuts out mid-hymn.
Set the iPhone to Do Not Disturb (or Airplane Mode + Wi-Fi/Bluetooth on) before the service so a phone call doesn’t interrupt the hymn.

7. Other things worth knowing

Volume and the congregation singing along

The Choral Scholars recordings are designed to be led by, not buried under. Aim for a level where the recording carries the tune confidently but the congregation can still hear themselves. Too loud and people stop singing.

Introductions

The recordings start straight into the first verse — there’s no “play-over” introduction the way an organist would. To give the congregation a heads-up, the service leader should announce “Please stand for our next hymn — Great Is Thy Faithfulness — verse one” and pause briefly before pressing play.

Number of verses

The recordings include all standard verses. If you only want to sing 3 of 5 verses, you’ll need to fade out manually — practise this in advance. The Music app on iPhone has no built-in fade; VLC does.

Backup plan

Always have a second device cued up with the same playlist. Phones run out of battery, cables fail, Bluetooth drops. A second-hand iPad kept in the vestry as a backup is one of the best investments a small church can make.

Other free libraries worth bookmarking

ACNY is the best Anglican-curated source, but two others fill gaps:

Hymns Without Words — free, organ-only recordings of traditional hymns, no licence needed.
Small Church Music — around 15,000 free MP3s, public domain, created specifically for tiny churches without musicians. Has an iOS app with custom setlists and offline playback.

Between ACNY (Sunday-by-Sunday lectionary tracks), Hymns Without Words (organ versions), and Small Church Music (the long tail), you can cover almost any service.

A weekly rhythm that works

At the start of each church season (Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Trinity): grab the whole new ACNY collection in one sitting — all the MP3s and all the “Words for Hymns” documents — and file them by Sunday in your Church Music/ACNY Hymns/ folder. The weekly job then becomes much smaller.
Friday morning: look at Sunday’s readings, pick the hymns you’ll use from what you’ve already downloaded, build the playlist, prepare the service sheet from the .docx.
Saturday: print service sheets; test the playlist on the church sound system.
Sunday: run with confidence.
Monday: log the hymns you used in CCLI / One License.

Quick reference card

What	Where
ACNY login	achurchnearyou.com/login
Resource Hub	Top menu after login → “Music downloads” → “Collections”
Download mechanism	Tick checkboxes, then “Download options” box at bottom of page
Release pattern	A whole season’s worth at a time
Lyrics	“Words for Hymns for [Sunday]” .docx in each Sunday’s track list
Track licence codes	PD = public domain · CCLI [num] · OL [num] = One License
Backup lyrics database	hymnary.org
CCLI licence check	uk.ccli.com
One License	onelicense.net
Lyric sheets (paid add-on)	songselect.ccli.com
Free organ recordings	play.hymnswithoutwords.com
Long-tail free MP3s	smallchurchmusic.com

About this guide. Published by St Peter’s Anglican Church, Château-d’Oex, as part of our Resource Centre for small Anglican churches. We welcome corrections, suggestions, and stories from other parishes using these resources — please write to info@stpeters.ch.

Last updated: April 2026.

A Church Near You Music Downloads: A Guide for Small Anglican Churches