Official Divine Chart

This week sees the launch of another chart category - the Official Christian and Gospel Albums Chart [11.Mar.13].  That's to add to the more recent additions such as the classical and streaming charts.

So that's "official" - rather than divine - because it comes from the Official Charts Company, which has been providing the UK charts for 60 years now.   It's also launched in conjunction with Compassion is an international Christian child development charity,  focusing on spiritual, economic, social and physical development of children living in extreme poverty in 26 countries.

No.1 Album - Zion by Hillsong United

The scale of Christian and Gospel music is significant. In the UK in 2012, 600 new Christian and gospel albums were released.  In the US sales outstrip the combined sales of classical, blues and jazz - 7% of all recorded music sales, with 26 million albums sold in 2012.  That's reflecting a more musically contemporary world of worship.

So the first top spot goes to the Australian group's Hillsong United, having already made it in the Australian and Us charts.

Here's that first top 10:

1	ZION	HILLSONG UNITED
2	WITHOUT WORDS	BETHEL MUSIC
3	10000 REASONS	MATT REDMAN
4	TOP 100 PRAISE & WORSHIP SONGS 2012	MARANATHA MUSIC
5	BURNING LIGHTS	CHRIS TOMLIN
6	FOR THE SAKE OF THE WORLD	BETHEL LIVE
7	CAMPFIRE	REND COLLECTIVE EXPERIMENT
8	CORNERSTONE	HILLSONG LIVE
9	SING LIKE NEVER BEFORE - THE ESSENTIAL	MATT REDMAN
10	LIVE FROM NEW YORK	MARTIN SMITH/JESUS CULTURE

Source and thanks: Official Charts Company