Choral Evensong
On the third Sunday of every month, the Saint Nicholas choir and Schola Cantorum adults offer Choral Evensong.
Join Saint Philip’s youth and adult choirs this Sunday, February 18, for an organ prelude that will begin at 4:15pm, followed by Choral Evensong at 4:30pm. A free-will offering will benefit the youth choir’s 2024 UK Residency and Pilgrimage.
This wonderful, ancient liturgy takes the form of sung prayers, psalms, and the traditional evening canticles, the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis, along with a hymn and an anthem. The service is full of meditative moments, as well as the time-honored chanting of the appointed psalms for the day. It is the perfect way to begin or end a week.
Choirs from all over the world sing Evensong week in and week out, and Saint Philip’s considers it a great privilege to participate in this beloved Anglican tradition. Help spread the word, and bring a friend.
Choral Evensong returns October 6!
As many will know, our Saint Nicholas youth choristers and adult Schola Cantorum sang for a week in Lincoln Cathedral UK, this past July, the fourth such choral residency that the choir has undertaken since 2016.
As always it was a mountain-top experience, singing the Daily Evensong and Sunday Eucharist with sometimes just a handful of folk gathered in the congregation, but knowing that the great cloud of witnesses who have worshipped in that glorious Cathedral were there in spirit. It served to strengthen our bond, musically and spiritually, as a group, and served as a prelude to the youth pilgrimage which followed.
Many of us have wondered about the possibility of a more frequent offering of this ancient and contemplative service here at Saint Philip's. We have certainly seen an increase in the size of congregation, but even more importantly, the outreach into the greater community of Tucson. The renewal of our corporate Sunday worship pattern has allowed us to follow up on this idea.
So we are delighted to invite you on a WEEKLY offering of Choral Evensong beginning on Sunday October 6 at 4:30 pm.
The pattern of worship will be constant, using the 1662 English Book of Common Prayer, along with Coverdale Psalms, anthems and canticles from many eras, to reflect the vast heritage of Anglican church music.
Our choirs will alternate in preparing this service each week: First Sundays, the newly formed St. Morwenna Voices (senior trebles and alumna): Second Sundays, the St. Morwenna voices and lay clerks, along with Schola volunteers. Third Sundays will be the Saint Nicholas Choir and Schola Cantorum, with Fourth Sundays sung by the Lay Clerks
We hope that you will join us as often as you can, and that you invite your friends, into a rich tapestry of music and prayer, in a pattern of worship that is centuries old, but that speaks to us today as profoundly as in the 16th century!