Category: Choral Evensong

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Choral Evensong

Friday 23rd June 2023 – 17:30

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God has been worshipped in this place through the prayers and praises of countless generations. Worship lies at the heart of our life as Christians and we express our theology and belief through our liturgy. It is through these liturgical patterns of words and actions that we are formed and transformed.

Should you wish to translate this order of service into another language, please choose your language in the bottom right. There is a guest wireless network available within the Cathedral for those without a mobile data connection.

Please note that this service may be live streamed for our online congregation. By participating in this service, you acknowledge that you may be visible or audible. If you are uncomfortable about this possibility, please speak to a steward or verger, who will be able to advise further.

The ministry of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral is made possible entirely through the support of individuals like you. The donations which we receive from people all over the world support our worship and music tradition, education programmes, and community outreach work, as well as contributing towards the vast cost of maintaining this historic building. Should you wish to donate online, please tap the donate button. 

Choral Evensong at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral is a tiny fragment of something else: it is part of the worship which is offered to God by people every hour of the day and night, in every corner of the world. When you come to Evensong here, it is as if you are dropping in on a conversation already in progress – a conversation between God and his people. So do not be surprised or concerned if there are some parts that you do not understand straight away.

Evensong is drawn almost entirely from the Bible. Much of the language spoken and sung in this service is that spoken by worshippers more than four hundred years ago. It may sound old-fashioned, but its meaning is not out of date. We invite you to allow the music and words to speak to you in the beauty and peace of this place.

You are invited to say the text in bold in English.

Please stand as the Minister, at the West End of the Cathedral, sings

Let us pray. 

Please remain standing whilst the Choir and Clergy enter the stalls

The Minister and Choir sing the

Preces & Responses

O Lord, open thou our lips.

And our mouth shall show forth thy praise.

O God, make speed to save us.

O Lord, make haste to help us.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Praise ye the Lord.

The Lord’s Name be praised.

Bernard Rose (1916–96)

Please sit as the Choir sings the 

PSALM 8 Domine, Dominus noster. O Lord our Governor: how excellent is thy Name in all the world! Thou that hast set thy glory above the heavens: out of the mouth of very babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength. Because of thine enemies: that thou mightest still the enemy, and the avenger. When I consider thy heavens, even the works of thy fingers: the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him: and the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him lower than the angels: to crown him with glory and worship. Thou makest him to have dominion of the works of thy hands: and thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet; All sheep and oxen: yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowls of the air, and the fishes of the sea: and whatsoever walketh through the paths of the seas. O Lord our Governor: how excellent is thy Name in all the world!

Please stand for

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Please sit for the

Jeremiah 18: 18-23


Then they said, ‘Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah—for instruction shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us bring charges against him, and let us not heed any of his words.’


Give heed to me, O Lord,
and listen to what my adversaries say!
Is evil a recompense for good?
Yet they have dug a pit for my life.
Remember how I stood before you
to speak good for them,
to turn away your wrath from them.
Therefore give their children over to famine;
hurl them out to the power of the sword,
let their wives become childless and widowed.
May their men meet death by pestilence,
their youths be slain by the sword in battle.
May a cry be heard from their houses,
when you bring the marauder suddenly upon them!
For they have dug a pit to catch me,
and laid snares for my feet.
Yet you, O Lord, know
all their plotting to kill me.
Do not forgive their iniquity,
do not blot out their sin from your sight.
Let them be tripped up before you;
deal with them while you are angry.

Please stand as the Choir sings 

Magnificat

Collegium Regale; Herbert Howells (1892–1983)

Please sit for the 

Acts 5: 17-26

Then the high priest took action; he and all who were with him (that is, the sect of the Sadducees), being filled with jealousy, arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors, brought them out, and said, ‘Go, stand in the temple and tell the people the whole message about this life.’ When they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and went on with their teaching.

When the high priest and those with him arrived, they called together the council and the whole body of the elders of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. But when the temple police went there, they did not find them in the prison; so they returned and reported, ‘We found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside.’ Now when the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these words, they were perplexed about them, wondering what might be going on. Then someone arrived and announced, ‘Look, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people!’ Then the captain went with the temple police and brought them, but without violence, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people.

Please stand as the Choir sings 

Nunc Dimittis

Collegium Regale; Herbert Howells (1892–1983)

Please remain standing to say the 

Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth: and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord: who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary: suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead: He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty: from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost: the holy catholic Church; the communion of saints: the forgiveness of sins: the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

The Minister and Choir sing the 

Suffrages & Responses

The Lord be with you.

And with thy spirit.

Let us pray.

Please kneel or sit, according to your custom

Lord, have mercy upon us.
Christ, have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon us.

Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

O Lord, shew thy mercy upon us.

And grant us thy salvation.

O Lord, guide and defend our rulers.

And mercifully hear us when we call upon thee.

Endue thy Ministers with righteousness.

And make thy chosen people joyful.

O Lord, save thy people.

And bless thine inheritance.

Give peace in our time, O Lord.

Because there is none other that fighteth for us, but only thou, O God.

O God, make clean our hearts within us.

And take not thy Holy Spirit from us.

The Minister intones the 

O Lord, who never failest to help and govern them whom thou dost bring up in thy steadfast fear and love; keep us, we beseech thee, under the protection of thy good providence, and make us to have a perpetual fear and love of thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O God, from whom all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works do proceed; give unto thy servants that peace which the world cannot give; that both our hearts may be set to obey thy commandments, and also that by thee we being defended from the fear of our enemies may pass our time in rest and quietness; through the merits of Jesus Christ our Saviour. 

Amen.

Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord; and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of thy only Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. 

Amen.

Bernard Rose (1916–96)

Please sit as the Choir sings the

Anthem

I was glad when they said unto me we will go into the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand in thy gates: O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is builded as a city that is at unity in itself. O pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls: and plenteousness within thy palaces.

Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (1848–1918)

The Minister says 

Let us pray.

Please kneel or remain seated for the 

Prayers

At the end, all say

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all, evermore. Amen.

Please stand as the Choir and Clergy depart.

Please remain at your seat for the duration of the

Organ Voluntary

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