Choral Evensong

Detail from a stained glass window

This year is the 400th anniversary of the Authorized Version of the Bible. One of the translators was the Rector of my parish church, and also Regius Professor of Hebrew at Oxford University, and later President of Magdalen College, Oxford. As my father is a Fellow at Magdalen, he organised a special Choral Evensong at our church, sung by Magdalen College Choir, to celebrate the occasion. 

We had the service mid-afternoon on the last Sunday in June, and it was a really lovely day. 

The sky was overcast when we woke, but the weather forecast had promised that the cloud cover would burn off by mid-morning, and lo and behold by nine o'clock the sky was a clear blue, and the sun was blazing down. 

The choir rehearsing

Come the afternoon it was turning into the best day of the year so far, and the church was full of people who had turned out to enjoy themselves. Our rector started off with an address about the translation of the Bible, and then the service began. Of course, the choir sang beautifully; they treated us to canticles by Purcell and three movements from Handel’s Messiah.

In the churchyard

My father is a dab hand at making elderflower cordial, and he made a large batch of it to be provided in the churchyard afterwards. Some stalwart women of the congregation provided biscuits and tea, and people stood around afterwards drinking, and chatting, and soaking up the atmosphere.

My parents and I had invited some particular friends back to our house for tea and cakes afterwards. The weather was so gorgeous that we spent the whole afternoon in the garden. No one really wanted to get back into a hot car again, and one family, who had come up from Southampton, stayed till seven o'clock. 

When at last they were all gone, my parents and I continued to sit outside for some time, simply enjoying the gentle, caressing warmth of a summer's evening.