I've been intending to post again on here for months. It just never happened due to being overtaken by other events - not all church music related. Discovering that the blog had been hacked as well hasn't helped!
Apparently, hackers can gain entry to individual blogs via 3rd party widgets and post what they like, advertising sites which I sincerely hope no visitor in the last few months followed.. Fortunately, they weren't able to take over the blog completely (which has happened to a number of others) so I've been able to delete all the rubbish and the widgets and all would appear to be well. Certainly there's been nothing new within the last few days so I'm breathing a cautious sigh of relief.
Like me, the Rudgates also seem to have been overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the activity at St. Wilfrid's church in York over the last 12 months. Since the Margaret Clitherow Pilgrimage, we've done very little other than to honour our commitments to Founders' Day at Barnard Castle, the Solemn Mass at Brinkburn and the annual Carol Service at St Mary's Bishophill Jnr.
St. W's now has a Director of Music which to me is a blessed relief, as all I have to do there now is sing (when time and health permit.) The latter hasn't been brilliant either over the last year & I'm still suffering from the after effects of a very bad cold/virus picked up just before Christmas.
I've decided that we're going to redress the balance this year and try and do more with the Rudgates, rather than just concentrate on York - convenient though that is!
We already have invitations to sing for the Ordinariate Community in Manchester, a Mass honouring the Lincolnshire Martyrs, a Mass at Jervaulx Abbey and Vespers @ St Mary's as part of Medieval Open Churches weekend. This in addition to some of us singing for the annual EF Priest/Server training conference which this year takes place in the splendid surroundings of Prior Park College in Bath.
I'm particularly keen on going to Manchester, because we missed out last year due to being committed to singing at Brinkburn the same day. It will also give us the chance to experience something entirely different from the Roman Rite (in either Form) that most of us a familiar with, be that singing for a BCP style Eucharist (with additions for catholic use) or a full-scale choral Evensong, something the Rudgates haven't done before, not even for the C of E!
In addition to this there are potentially two foreign tours. There is a chance that the schola might be involved in commemorative events in Co. Wicklow in Ireland. We'll need more details before this can be confirmed. More likely is a return trip to the Alps & the Tyrol, this time flying in & out of Switzerland (probably Zurich.) The latter is likely to happen towards the end of September & plans are already being made. We might even get to sing in Innsbruck this time, something we couldn't do in 2012 due to an appointment with a fairly famous beer festival being held in Bavaria.. :-)
All in all, a potentially exciting year. I just want my health to improve, so that I can enjoy it!
