This weekend

Services this weekend which I have (more than a little) hand in. :-)

Friday 26/10/2018 7pm

Feast of SS Chad & Cedd

Evensong with the York Ordinariate Mission.

St Mary's Church, Bishophill Junior, York.

Saturday 27/10/2018 10am

Ampleforth Abbey

Orthodox Liturgy of St John Chrysostom

I'm not actually singing in the choir for this. My role, as it has been for a number of years now, is to chant the Epistle in English, but to the authentic Carpatho-Rusyn chant which I learned from a Ukrainian friend of mine!

Saturday 27/10/2018 4pm.

York Ordinariate Mission.

Anticipated Mass for the 22nd Sunday after Trinity.

St Mary's Church, Bishophill Junior, York.

If you're at a loose end on Saturday afternoon and want to come along and sing some decent hymns along with Merbecke Creed and chant Mass setting, you'll be made very welcome I'm sure! I've enclosed the link to the music below. :-)

http://mike4b.co.uk/Services/BHJ/Trinity_22.pdf

Gregorian Chant Vespers

I was originally going to write a post about what I'd been doing since the last entry about the Pontifical Ordinariate Mass in York (quite a lot!) but as that would have taken some time to compose, I thought it could wait for a bit longer and be incorporated into a general review of the year's activities.

I shall talk about Vespers instead! As many of you know, members and friends of the Rudgates meet regularly at the oldest church in York - St Mary, Bishophill Junior to chant (usually) Compline from the Divine Office, and, more recently, from the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I had been asked a few months ago, whether it was possible to chant Vespers more often, so we're going to introduce it on a trial basis for certain feasts and see how it goes. This of course will depend on the availability of the church building (we don't have exclusive access to it of course!) and singers. I may be capable of singing (and have done so) Hours of the Office by myself, but it's not really desirable. :-)

The first of these is at 7:30pm tomorrow evening, when Vespers for the Feast of the Motherhood of the BVM shall be sung, quite appropriate really, as it's St Mary's church. Do please come along if you're free!

The Year so Far...

Up to now, it's been a quiet 2018 for the Rudgates with only a chant mass for the York Ordinariate Mission and a Requiem in the Extraordinary Form in Hedon. This has allowed me to sing with other excellent choirs such as St Austin's, Wakefield and the Middlesbrough Cathedral Consort (links to both on the right) and in such locations as Leeds Cathedral, Ripon Cathedral and (new to me) Norwich Catholic Cathedral. I've also managed to catch up with supporting/listening to the excellent Westland Singers, Clerkes of All Saints and the as yet unlinked Caelestis Consort who sing Evensong during term time at St Lawrence's Church in York. I shall rectify that omission soon!

For the Rudgates though, things are about to change! We have a Pontifical Mass (Ordinariate Use of the Roman Rite) coming up next month at St. Mary's Bishophill Jnr, where some of us sing Compline and which is also the home of the York Ordinariate Mission in addition to being a C of E Parish Church which also hosts the local Greek, Russian and Coptic Orthodox Communities. Talk about diversity!

What makes the service we're singing for particularly exciting, is that it is believed to be the first time *ever* that a Pontifical Mass, certainly in this Form, will be celebrated in an existing Anglican Church - so we're about to create another slice of history to go alongside the York Minster EF Mass of 2011 (believed to be the first Mass of it's type since the reign of Queen Mary Tudor) and Vespers at St. Mary's Abbey in York, where the Solemn 'York' Salve Regina, written for the monks there, was sung in situ for the first time since the Reformation!

If you're at a loose end on the 12th May at 4pm, do come along - especially if you like Tallis. :-)