"Children of the Heavenly Father" copyright status?

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The text information for "Children of the Heavenly Father" states "Copyright © 1925 Board of Publication Lutheran Church of America, ren. 1963, admin. Augsburg Fortress." According to that, my calculation is the copyright will not expire until 2021, yet the PDF edition of the song states it is public domain. Can someone clarify?


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It appears to be still under copyright, although a copyright statement did not appear in several hymnals published in the early 1990's. 

CCLI reports the words as public domain on their website (#98028 and #7106689), and that was confirmed by their support staff via email.

I looked at the two CCLI pages cited, and saw no indication of copyright status on either. However, I don't have a CCLI account; perhaps one need to log onto CCLI to see that data.

... just speculating ... The Lutherans may either have forgotten to renew after the first 28 years or may have intentionally refrained from doing so. The act of renewal was required to keep a work out of the public domain, and once the copyright lapsed, it could not be reinstated. I was brought up under that regime.

The Lutheran church is more likely to use OneLicense as their licensing agency. OneLicense indicates that it is copyrighted. I contacted Augsburg Fortress and they confirmed it is under copyright until the end ot 2020.