Category: Choral Evensong

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Choral Evensong

Monday 12th 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.

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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 It may sound old-fashioned, but its meaning is not out of date.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 98 Cantate Domino. O sing unto the Lord a new song: for he hath done marvellous things. With his own right hand, and with his holy arm: hath he gotten himself the victory. The Lord declared his salvation: his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen. He hath remembered his mercy and truth toward the house of Israel: and all the ends of the world have seen the salvation of our God. Shew yourselves joyful unto the Lord, all ye lands: sing, rejoice, and give thanks. Praise the Lord upon the harp: sing to the harp with a psalm of thanksgiving. With trumpets also, and shawms: O shew yourselves joyful before the Lord the King. Let the sea make a noise, and all that therein is: the round world, and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands, and let the hills be joyful together before the Lord: for he is come to judge the earth. With righteousness shall he judge the world: and the people with equity.

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

Leviticus 15: 23-31, 22: 1-9

Whether it is the bed or anything upon which she sits, when he touches it he shall be unclean until the evening. If any man lies with her, and her impurity falls on him, he shall be unclean for seven days; and every bed on which he lies shall be unclean.

If a woman has a discharge of blood for many days, not at the time of her impurity, or if she has a discharge beyond the time of her impurity, for all the days of the discharge she shall continue in uncleanness; as in the days of her impurity, she shall be unclean. Every bed on which she lies during all the days of her discharge shall be treated as the bed of her impurity; and everything on which she sits shall be unclean, as in the uncleanness of her impurity. Whoever touches these things shall be unclean, and shall wash his clothes, and bathe in water, and be unclean until the evening. If she is cleansed of her discharge, she shall count seven days, and after that she shall be clean. On the eighth day she shall take two turtle-doves or two pigeons and bring them to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting. The priest shall offer one for a sin-offering and the other for a burnt-offering; and the priest shall make atonement on her behalf before the Lord for her unclean discharge.

Thus you shall keep the people of Israel separate from their uncleanness, so that they do not die in their uncleanness by defiling my tabernacle that is in their midst.
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Direct Aaron and his sons to deal carefully with the sacred donations of the people of Israel, which they dedicate to me, so that they may not profane my holy name; I am the Lord. Say to them: If anyone among all your offspring throughout your generations comes near the sacred donations, which the people of Israel dedicate to the Lord, while he is in a state of uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from my presence: I am the Lord. No one of Aaron’s offspring who has a leprous disease or suffers a discharge may eat of the sacred donations until he is clean. Whoever touches anything made unclean by a corpse or a man who has had an emission of semen, and whoever touches any swarming thing by which he may be made unclean or any human being by whom he may be made unclean—whatever his uncleanness may be— the person who touches any such shall be unclean until evening and shall not eat of the sacred donations unless he has washed his body in water. When the sun sets he shall be clean; and afterwards he may eat of the sacred donations, for they are his food. That which died or was torn by wild animals he shall not eat, becoming unclean by it: I am the Lord. They shall keep my charge, so that they may not incur guilt and die in the sanctuary for having profaned it: I am the Lord; I sanctify them.

Please stand as the Choir sings 

Magnificat

Service in A; Philip Moore (b. 1943)

Please sit for the 

2 Corinthians 6: 14 – 7: 2

Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship is there between light and darkness? What agreement does Christ have with Beliar? Or what does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,
‘I will live in them and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
Therefore come out from them,
and be separate from them, says the Lord,
and touch nothing unclean;
then I will welcome you,
and I will be your father,
and you shall be my sons and daughters,
says the Lord Almighty.’

Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and of spirit, making holiness perfect in the fear of God.

Make room in your hearts for us; we have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one.

Please stand as the Choir sings 

Nunc Dimittis

Service in A; Philip Moore (b. 1943)

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 God Almighty, who didst endue thy holy Apostle Barnabas with singular gifts of the Holy Ghost: Leave us not, we beseech thee, destitute of thy manifold gifts, nor yet of grace to use them alway to thy honour and glory; 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

In pace, in idipsum dormiam et requiescam.
Si dedero somnum oculis meis,
et palpebris meis dormitationem,
dormiam et requiescam.
Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto.

(In peace and into the same I shall sleep and rest.
If I give slumber to my eyes
and to my eyelids drowsiness,
I shall sleep and rest.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.)

Grayston Ives (b.1948)

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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