15 February 2008

A visiting choir from Lichfield Cathedral

Looking across Stowe Pool at Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

By Patrick Comerford

Choral Evensong in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, last night (Thursday 14 February) was sung by Lichfield Cathedral Girls’ Choir. The Preces and Responses were by Christopher Brown, and the Canticles Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis were sung to the setting for the Evening Service in C Minor by George Dyson (1883-1964). For the anthem they sang George Herbert’s Let all the world in every corner sing (C.S. Lang).

The choir performs today (Friday) in Saint Audeon’s Church and is singing the services in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, on Sunday.

It was a privilege and a joy to robe and to take part in Choral Evensong with this choir. After the prayers with them in the Chapter House afterwards I recalled how I had once worked with the Lichfield Mercury and how I had my first adult feeling of the love and light of God in Lichfield at the age of 19 when I visited Saint John’s in 1971.

Lichfield and Lichfield Cathedral continue to have a special place in my heart, and I hope to be back there again next month.