by Patrick Burgess
Brighten Our Darkness
As, all too quickly, the shadows lengthened and night’s steely fingers invaded the dusk, a sense of gentle elation filled our Cathedral on Sunday the 30th November. Hope, as Bishop Richard said in his homily as we celebrated Solemn Pontifical Vespers for the first Sunday of Advent - and not just Hope but the promise of Light it brings - changes everything: it fills a whole dull winter month with the eager expectation of the blessings which the Child lying in a manger at Bethlehem will bring, and with the striking presentiment of the awe which His coming again will one day inspire in all of us ; no wonder we all thrilled at the prospect as we rose to sing, as our Office Hymn, ’ Lo, He comes with clouds descending: O what rapture!’
And so, to be caught up, as we all were, in the soaring polyphony of our wondrous choir, reverberating round the high stone vaults above us – three glorious pieces - and in the scents from the East of incense wafting around us, was a wonderful experience. And the ambience in which we found ourselves made all the more striking the words of the Psalms we sang – ‘the mountains leapt like rams, the hills like yearling sheep’…. and the wisdom of St Paul in the reading from his letter to the Philippians which we heard- ‘Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice… The Lord is at hand…’
And light, too, was all around us: in the lighting of the first, purple, candle of the Advent Wreath at the beginning of the Service, in the acolytes’ processional candles, placed upon the High Altar to flank the great altar crucifix (recently silvered by the Friends!), and in the sparkle and glints from the golden chains of the many civic dignitaries who were present.
As has become traditional, the three High Sheriffs of the three Counties which comprise the Diocese attended, in Court Dress, (the only occasion in England when three High Sheriffs attend a service ceremonially, each in their own right). For them, the rest of the next four weeks will be filled by a veritable cascade of Christmas carol services to be attended with various charities across their respective Counties
so our Vespers is a welcome start.
Hearts would have been lifted to hear but one of the great pieces sung by the Choir, but we were carried away in spirit by no less than three: ‘O radiant Dawn ..’ one of the ‘Great O’ antiphons traditionally sung at Vespers in Advent, set to music by James Macmillan; a setting of the Magnificat by David Bevan (the scion of a large musical family); and ‘How
Elizabeth Stratford conducting the choir
lovely are the messengers that preach us the gospel of peace’, set by Felix Mendelssohn.
The blessing with which Bishop Richard blessed us on our way included the exhortation: ”As you run the race of this present life, may He make you firm in faith, joyful in hope and active in charity”.
And so indeed may it be.
Lady Georgina with Bishop Richard