Double Chant in G Major

It's been a while since I wrote an Anglican chant, so here's another. I was thinking broadly of Psalm 27 when I wrote it, but it's in the nature of Anglican chant that it isn't fixed to one set of words, so I present it here with no text. There are some robots singing it (they don't do words either): And there's a PDF to download. As usual, it's CC by-SA which means you can copy it as long as...

Double Chant in C Major

Last Sunday one of my psalm chants was sung in Guildford Cathedral, by the University of London Church Choir. I wrote it for Psalm 119 vv 1-16, but as Anglican chant is meant to be flexible you could use whatever words you like. Accordingly, the copy over on CPDL doesn't include the text. If you can't read the PDF there is a midi file, though it's a bit slow. As usual, this is under a Creative...

Flash Compline 12-12-2014 8.30pm

There will be a Flash Compline service at 8.30pm on Friday, 12th December, just north of Southwark Cathedral, near London Bridge tube and mainline stations - here's a map Music: We will use this setting of Compline. We will have a small number of spare copies, which you can purchase for £3 if you want to keep them, or borrow if you don't. Don't worry if you aren't a confident singer -- follow...

Minster-Shaped Church?

One proposal for the flourishing of the parish system in the Church of England The Church of England, we keep being told, has a problem: not enough resources to have a priest (or even a deacon) in every parish church. Some will say this is about a shortage of young vocations to fill stipendiary posts, others will be blunt and say it's because we don't have enough money to pay for that many...

Flash Compline Wednesday 3 December

There will be a Flash Compline service at 9.30pm on Wednesday, 3rd December, in the gardens of St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate, near Liverpool Street tube and mainline stations - here's a map Music: We will use this setting of Compline. We will have a small number of spare copies, which you can purchase for £3 if you want to keep them, or borrow if you don't. Don't worry if you aren't a confident...

Addendum — Prayer

In my previous post I wrote about factors that contributed to my return (or maybe even my initial approach?) to Christian faith and practice. Somehow, I neglected to mention other people praying for me. I would be hard pressed to say that anyone was praying for my conversion, as such. If they did, they had more sense than to tell me about it. I am certain I would not have reacted well. But I do...

Liturgical hair: Going for Green

I have been dyeing my hair in liturgical colours since the beginning of Advent. This is to raise money for repairs to the bellows of our very fine Lewis pipe organ at St Andrew's. I've done purple, pink, purple with red, white/gold, and white with red. The sponsorship started well, and has now raised £1436 £1507.40: enough to sponsor 47 50 full days of hair in liturgical colours. Thanks so much...

Reality Check

"The reality is that where you have a good vicar, you will find growing churches." --@ABCJustin earlier Today. All other factors being equal, this may be true. A "good" vicar or minister in a situation where a growth in church membership is possible is probably more likely, on the whole, to see that growth happen than a "bad" or mediocre one. Assuming growth in church membership is a good thing...

Gaudete

First a little music -- the second track from my album, Cheerful voices, available at Bandcamp. As I've written there: This carol is from the Piae Cantiones, a cllection of Scandinavian sacred music published in 1582. Only the music for the chorus is given; the traditional tune for the verses is taken from other songs from around that time. Thanks to Ruth Moss for the English half of the chorus....

Liturgical hair: Ember Day during Advent

So far in Advent I've been puprle, purple, and purple. There have been a few optional white days for various saints, but they aren't ones we normally keep at St Andrew's. Today is what is known as an Ember Day, and I thought I'd do some red spray-on stripes to highlight it. According to Wikipedia, Ember days are four separate sets of three days within the same week — specifically, the...