Today we sang "All Glory, Laud, and Honour" for Palm Sunday (surprise, surprise!). The version in the missalette says, "All Glory, Laud, and Honour to you Redeemer King." The version in our hymnal said, "to Thee, Redeemer King." The rest of the hymn was pretty much the same, except that the missalette had "yous" and the hymnal had "thees" and "thous" throughout. Our choir director chose to use the hymnal version, which to my mind was the right choice.
I think people think of "thees" and "thous" as more formal and distancing than "yous," but my experience of this hymn was, strangely, the opposite. The "thees" and "thous" version, though seemingly more formal, also felt more intimate than the "yous" version. Perhaps it is because I know that originally "thou" in English was the familiar, intimate form, as the cognate du is in German. I don't know; saying "you" just seems to flatten the whole thing and at the same time put Christ at more of a distance.
I vote for more "thees" and "thous" in the liturgy, but I doubt my vote is going to count for much.
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