'Bay Psalm' America's First Book To Be Sold Despite Protests

America's First book "Bay Psalm" printed in 1640 in Cambridge is to be sold at $20 million by a Boston church.

The "Bay Psalm" book is the most sacred to the Puritans. The book, titled "The Whole Booke of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre." had hundreds of copies printed back in 17^th century, but now ,only 11 remain, said a report in The Guardian.

Along with the "Bay Psalm" book, 19 pieces of colonial silver is set to be sold by a Boston church to pay for the repairs and to continue its outreach work.

"We know what we need for a sustainable future," Rev. Nancy Taylor, senior minister of Old South told boston.com. "We want to take this old hymn book, from which we literally sang our praises to God, and convert it . . . into doing God's ministry in the world today."

The decision is a controversial one. Despite a vote to sell the book, there are still some who oppose the move. One of those who opposed was church historian and former moderator, Jeff Makholm, who thinks it was an unnecessary move.

"I think what the government of the church has gotten members into here is a very ugly situation that should have and could have been avoided," he told boston.com. "Once we break the faith with our forebears, it's all out the door," Makholm told the Associated Press. "How easy is it to spend somebody else's money?"

"The actions we took today will have important consequences. Right now we do not know whether future generations will view us as people who heard the true voice of God. Or as people who listened to and followed a false voice - whether pride, or laziness, or fear - masquerading as the voice of God. Our actions from this day forward will determine how the action we took today will be viewed by future generations." Old South trustee Dan Bergstresser said, according oldsouth.org. "If we sell these assets and combine them with our own recklessly generous gifts and service to the church, then we will be viewed as people who heard and followed the true voice of God. We will reveal through our actions from this point forward what has really happened here today."

The members who voted for the sale told 90.9 WBUR focusing on the future of the church: "I think the time has come for the church to make a decision on whether they want to sit on a pile of silver or go out into the community and do the work of the church."