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Choral Evensong

Sunday 21st May 2023 – 15:15

Order of Service

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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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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 It may sound old-fashioned, but its meaning is not out of date.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

Please remain standing to sing the

Hymn


1. When, in our music, God is glorified,
And adoration leaves no room for pride
It is as though the whole creation cried:
Alleluia!

2. How often, making music, we have found
A new dimension in the world of sound,
As worship moved us to a more profound
Alleluia!

3. So has the Church, in liturgy and song,
In faith and love, through centuries of wrong,
Borne witness to the truth in every tongue:
Alleluia!

4. And did not Jesus sing a psalm that night
When utmost evil strove against the Light?
Then let us sing, for whom he won the fight:
Alleluia!

5. Let every instrument be tuned for praise!
Let all rejoice who have a note to raise!
And may God give us faith to sing always:
Alleluia!

Frederick Green (1903–2000)

Charles Villiers Stanford (1852–1924)

Please stand.

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.

David Leigh (1993)

Please sit as the Choir sings the 

PSALM 106 vv 1–12

Confitemini Domino.

O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is gracious: and his mercy endureth for ever.  Who can express the noble acts of the Lord: or shew forth all his praise?  Blessed are they that alway keep judgement: and do righteousness.  Remember me, O Lord, according to the favour that thou bearest unto thy people: O visit me with thy salvation;  That I may see the felicity of thy chosen: and rejoice in the gladness of thy people, and give thanks with thine inheritance.  We have sinned with our fathers: we have done amiss, and dealt wickedly.  Our fathers regarded not thy wonders in Egypt, neither kept they thy great goodness in remembrance: but were disobedient at the sea, even at the Red sea.  Nevertheless, he helped them for his Name’s sake: that he might make his power to be known.  He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up: so he led them through the deep, as through a wilderness.  And he saved them from the adversary’s hand: and delivered them from the hand of the enemy.  As for those that troubled them, the waters overwhelmed them: there was not one of them left.  Then believed they his words: and sang praise unto him.

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

2 Samuel 23: 1–5

Please stand as the Choir sings 

Magnificat

Service in D; George Dyson (1883–1964) 

Please sit for the 

Mark 16: 14–20

Please stand as the Choir sings 

Nunc Dimittis

Service in D; George Dyson (1883–1964) 

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 God the King of glory, who hast exalted thine only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph unto thy kingdom in heaven; We beseech thee, leave us not comfortless; but send to us thine Holy Spirit to comfort us, and exalt us unto the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. 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.

David Leigh (1993)

Please sit as the Choir sings the

Anthem

Alleluia! And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up: behold, two men stood by them in white apparel: which said unto them, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? In like manner as ye have seen him going up into heaven, so shall he come again. God is gone up with a merry noise; and the Lord with the sound of the trumpet. Christ to highest heaven ascending, led captivity captive. Sing ye to the Lord, who ascended to the heaven of heavens, to the sunrising. See the Conqueror mounts in triumph, see the King in royal state riding on the clouds his chariot to his heavenly palace gate; Hark! the choirs of angel voices joyful Alleluias sing, and the portals high are lifted to receive their heavenly King.

Patrick Gowers (b.1936)

Sermon

Preacher:The Very Reverend K. R. J. Hall, M.Phil.,Prebendary of Tassagard

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 to sing

Hymn

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1. Crown him with many crowns,
The Lamb upon his throne,
Hark! how the heavenly anthem drowns
All music but its own:
Awake, my soul, and sing
Of him who died for thee,
And hail him as thy matchless King
Through all eternity.

2. Crown him the Virgin’s Son,
The God incarnate born,
Whose arm those crimson trophies won
Which now his brow adorn:
Fruit of the mystic Rose,
As of that Rose the Stem;
The Root whence mercy ever flows,
The Babe of Bethlehem.

3. Crown him the Lord of love!
Behold his hands and side,
Those wounds yet visible above
In beauty glorified:
No angel in the sky
Can fully bear that sight,
But downward bends his burning eye
At mysteries so bright.

4. Crown him the Lord of peace,
Whose power a sceptre sways
From pole to pole, that wars may cease,
Absorbed in love and praise:
His reign shall know no end;
And round his piercèd feet
Fair flowers of Paradise extend
Their fragrance ever sweet.

5. Crown him the Lord of years,
The Potentate of time,
Creator of the rolling spheres,
Ineffably sublime.
Glassed in a sea of light,
Where everlasting waves
Reflect his throne–the Infinite!
Who lives, and loves, and saves.

Matthew Bridges (1800–94)

George Elvey (1816–93)

Please remain standing for the

Blessing

Please remain at your seat for the duration of the

Organ Voluntary

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