Festal Eucharist

Above: Saint Michael drives his lance into the head of the dragon. The inscription above is Quis ut Deus (“Who is like God?,” the English meaning of the Hebrew word Michael), giving the archangel the authority to bring to account those who claim to be God’s equal.

Today’s Eucharist is “festal” because we celebrate today Saint Michael & All Angels. The feast day is actually September 29, and so we will also keep the feast on that day with said masses in the Chantry at 8am and 12:10pm, and with a Festal Eucharist with the Gentlemen of the Choir at 5:30pm. That said, we’ve translated the feast to today as well so that the maximum number of people can participate.

Included in worship are hymns sung by the congregation and choir, additional music sung exclusively by the choir, lessons, prayers, a sermon, and a Rite I Mass. All baptized Christians are welcome to receive Holy Communion. Details of the service may be seen in the leaflet and the service card, which are posted at the bottom of this page.

‚ñ∫The Rector speaks of the angelic host in his weekly audio message.

‚ñ∫Music Notes: Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) was born in Dublin and studied at Cambridge where he was appointed Organist of Trinity College in 1873 and took a third-class honours degree in Classics in 1874. Whilst working in Cambridge, Stanford spent time studying in Germany where he met Liszt, Brahms, Wagner and others. In 1883 he became Professor of Composition at the Royal College of Music and in 1887 he was appointed Professor of Music at Cambridge. A significant and influential figure in academic music, Stanford’s numerous contributions to church music have become some of the best-loved and most well-known of all the works in the repertoire. His ashes are buried next to those of Purcell in Westminster Abbey. The Communion Service in C & F was written in 1909 and is a short, syllabic setting of the text, characterized by a warm harmonic texture and a touching simplicity.

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