You’re invited to come and hear Peter Tatchell give a human rights lecture on Saturday 19 July 2014 at 6.30 pm in St Mary’s.
He’s also going to be doing a forum after the 10.30 am service on Sunday.
Couldn’t agree with you more about ‘Jesus Christ the Apple Tree’. It was sung, at his own request, at the great Michael Mayne’s Funeral in Salisbury Cathedral and the preacher on that occasion said the following: ‘And perhaps most of all, those strands of simplicity and humility that are the harbingers of gratitude and grace caught in three musical choices with which we celebrate Michael’s life today. Elizabeth Postern’s ‘Jesus Christ the Apple Tree’ – if she never wrote another piece (and I know nothing else by her), this wonderful essay in simplicity would earn her reputation.’ I’d like it sung at my own.
Evensong is wonderful. Compline is almost as good…. “Brethren, be sober, be vigilant……”.
I remember the then Provost of St Andrew’s Cathedral Aberdeen Donald Howard describing Evensong as being “like a relaxing soak in a hot bath after a busy Sunday”. He had a point.
When I lived in Glasgow I travelled from the darkest southside to St Mary’s for evensong most weeks. Now, I’ve been to many stunning evensongs in grand cathedrals and college chapels over the years but St Mary’s Glasgow is hard to beat for the intimacy of the experience and the absence of pretension – as well as the high musical standards! Keep up the good work.
With you on Jesus Christ the Apple Tree. Great text. I’ve recently used a setting in the Oxford Book of Flexible Anthems which uses a traditional folk melody to stunning effect – even simpler than the Poston, but just as effective!
Our little choir, Angelus Singers, was formed, and still exists, to sing Evensong in churches where no choir exists.
In my write-up about the value of Evensong, I said that..’You cannot go away angry, after Evensong’, and I still believe that.
Well, last week it was the meeting of Primates of the Anglican Communion in Egypt. You can read +Idris’s take on the events here. Rather more interestingly, an angry and despairing letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury purporting to be from Archbishop of Nigeria has been issued (on an American website) which quotes +Idris directly.…
Here is last Sunday's sermon, which one or two people have been asking for. The Gospel reading that I have just read contains within it something of a conundrum. There is a hidden puzzle in it. An embedded surprise. We are reading just at the start of Mark’s gospel – the first of the gospels…
To the University of Glasgow yesterday for a seminar in the theology department. One of the questions we were looking at was, “Who owns clergy bodies?” (Answers on a postcard, please). The other one was about whether churches attitudes to same-sex couples inhibits people’s human rights. In in dealing with these questions, I was quite…
The Primates of the Anglican Communion have been meeting this week in Egypt. Their communique can be read here. I see also that they have been hobnobbing with Pope Shenouda III of the Coptic Church. Just before being ordained, I spent some time in Egypt, including a very memorable and enjoyable evening at one of…
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