Categories: uncategorized
Date: 06 April 2004 15:11:25
This must be one of the few Sundays in the year when we process into church, not to a hymn, but to silence. In the Lent, Holy Week and Easter book, the Palm Sunday service begins with readings and prayers and blessing of palms. We then process out of church and around the churchyard, singing 'All Glory Laud and Honour', then returning back to our places singing 'Ride on, ride on in Majesty'. The cross is decorated with huge palm fronds, and it doesn't take long outside before the acolytes' candles blow out. The choir stalls were rather crowded today, with the return of 'old' choristers for the Easter break. But we all - just - managed to finish receiving communion before it was time to strike up with the anthem - 'O Saviour of the World' (Goss).
Instead of Evensong there was our usual Palm Sunday practice of singing a slightly larger-sized work: this year Faure's Requiem. We processed in, all clad in red (cassocks only), our order belying to all but the early arrivals the earlier chaos of setting out the chairs and deciding exactly who was to sit where. There's a lot to be said for the usual choir stalls! Beautiful solos from Anna and Peter, both with long-term connections to the church but sadly living elsewhere these days. Only one slight mishap where the timing went askew, but brought back again to end delightfully. Phew! The congregation joined in the hymns at beginning and end, 'O sacred head sore wounded' seeming particularly appropriate, and prayers were said - I like the fact that it is offered as a devotion and not as a concert.