It must be Rutter week.

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 18 July 2005 09:48:35

Arrived at church still talking about the amazing wedding of the Town Crier during carnival week, with all the guests in either town crier costume (complete with 'Oh Yea' bells) or Victorian costume. Suddenly the church looked more dowdy, despite clergy and choir robes. We are a boring lot these days to expect everyone to dress down for church..... Again we were grateful for the early morning vestry rehearsal as this time it was the turn of the sopranos to get very keen and come in a bar early on their entry ('I will sing with the Spirit', Rutter). All was well in the service, though, and we were even organised enough to sing a descant during the processional hymn ('The Kingdom of God is justice and joy' - Hanover). All difficulties of having to concentrate through the long prayers were forgotten as we skipped out (very discreetly) to Lefebure-Wely's Sortie in Eb, diddly-diddly-dum.

No service for the choir in the evening, but a Farewell service for the Bishop of Plymouth in the main city church in the afternoon. Yet more Rutter, as the choir sang 'Deep peace of the running wave'; also 'Cantate Domino' by Pitoni and 'Hymn to the Trinity' by Tchaikovsky. I got the impression that the Pitoni and Tchaikovsky suited the choir voices better than the Rutter, with its much more free-form style. Perhaps it was included as the token 'modern' piece. The congregation all applauded the Bishop as he processed out - it sounded very, very strange, especially as it quite overwhelmed the organ voluntary (Widor's Toccata) which I wanted to listen to. But a sign of what high regard the Bishop was held by all present. The bun fight in the hall afterwards ('Bucks Fizz' and lots of cake) was pretty good, too. And gave me a chance to catch up with a very special lady of 93, the widow of the first vicar I remember from my childhood church.