Be not afraid!

A few years ago my parish had what you could call an old but orthodox priest who had had the fight knocked out of him. When our first daughter was born he was less than pre-disposed to the notion of good liturgical music when I asked if I could bring my friends to a Saturday rite of baptism and sing some chant and polyphony. He agreed, but only reluctantly after I threatened to go to the Bishop.

His health was poor and he retired soon after to be replaced by a priest who was a former Anglican vicar. The new PP, while not being familiar or versed with Latin, was more open, more willing to encourage me to come to the parish and be part of it’s life as opposed to seeing me as trouble. He also has a fine understanding of a choral tradition as at least in most quarters the Anglicans have retained it.

As my second daughter was baptised in August and the Cathedrals have that month off from musical services, I had a few friends who are lay clerks at Westminster Cathedral and St Albans come and sing. We had chant and polyphony, and as we rehearsed word got out and the parish turned up. It was lovely to have them there.

The PP was open to persuasion. I persuaded him to let me put a choir together and sing vespers last year. It was a lot of work, but largely successful. This year I persuaded him to let me loose on a Sunday mass.

For Christ the King this year the choir I put together sung the full Latin Introit, Byrd’s Mass for 4 voices, a psalm from the Chabanel psalms that the congregation could join in with the responses, a simplified alleluia, Tallis’ If ye love me, and Bairstow’s Let all mortal flesh keep silence along with the communion antiphon.

The church was packed. I noticed 2 young couples present themselves kneeling for communion. There were silences where silence was appropriate. Mass was, well mass.

To add some context to this the “choir” of the parish sings the usual 4-hymn sandwich and when I suggested some time ago trying some of the simple propers or even a Kevin Allen motet I was told that 2 members had refused and wanted to sing a “Carribean Our Father” instead. The organist would love to try a Missa de Angelis, and on the odd occasion when the choir are absent I’ve chanted the Sanctus with no wild objections from the congregation. but personality politics does come into play. However, following the choral Mass, the following week the choir did sing a simple Latin motet. You cannot underestimate what a seismic shift this was.

You see, it just takes an open minded priest, a little effort, and planting the seed in people’s minds as top what is possible. The parish won’t be going to a full weekly Mozart Coronation Mass in the EF, but a packed church heard chant sung in its proper context, and having heard it and appreciated it, the seeds have been sown for the future. The walls that have been built up against chant and polyphony in the Mass by the three decades have been broken down in the parish and they have had a glimpse of what could be.

I’m encouraged by the words of our past Holy Father, Venerable Pope John Paul the Great: “Be not afraid!”