15 April 2007

Back to The Office

While we wait for the snags which are delaying the York Mass from going ahead to be ironed out, I'm happy to report the the chanting of the Divine Office goes from strength to strength. Not only have we acquired a new and very enthusiastic member of the Schola - take a bow, Seishi :-) - but last night for the first time, we sang on a Saturday evening, as I'd wanted to do something during the Octave of Easter.

What made yesterday evening so special, was the fact that we were joined by a good friend, Chris, who brought two other people with him, bringing us up to 6 singers! Chris is the Director of music for an Anglican church in Ilkley (St Margaret's), who rehearse on Friday's and sing on Sunday evenings. As these are the days when we have normally sung, it would mean they would miss out on chanting the office with us - so for the foreseeable future, unless other events, concerts etc are taking place, we're going to sing on Saturday evenings.

Yesterday's chanting was excellent, apart from one or two minor mishaps, due to the fact that the Office differs somewhat from what we're used to in the Easter Octave. If you're in York, and want to experience the singing of Gregorian Chant in the context of true Liturgical worship [This IS the Catholic Office by the way, despite the fact that our wonderful hosts are Anglicans!] then please do come and take part. We do have orders of service so to speak where everything is written out in both Latin and English, so you'll know what's happening even if your Latin is only basic... ;-)

Depending on how many of us there are, we occasionally 'retire' to a local pub afterwards, where we either discuss, the service, future plans, what's happening locally - the Moto Proprio is a hot topic at the moment - or anything else that comes to mind. You would, of course, be more than welcome to join us there too!

All dates and times of services and other events can be found in our Calendar on the website http://www.lms-middlesbrough.co.uk/

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