Reflections, Windows, Worship options in Church & online, Social Action & gentle Satire.

Also News, Dates & Times, Direct link here

/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/NewLeaves_Dec20.pdf

The post “New Leaves” December/January appeared first on St Michael & All Angels.

Sun 1st Dec, 11am. ADVENT SUNDAY. Sung Mass. Litany in Procession, 11, 15. Missa Brevis, Lotti. Matin Responsory, Palestrina. 12Noon Bountiful Table of Bakes, Preserves & Produce.
N.B. No Evensong on Sun 1st Dec.

Sat 7th Dec, 10 – 12. Church Cleaning Morning – please come & help if you can.

Sun 8th Dec, 11am. Advent II. Hymns: 5: 10: 16. Mass in the Dorian Mode, Tallis. People Look East, Trad.
6pm ADVENT PROCESSION & CAROL SERVICE, followed by Mulled Wine & Mince Pies.

Fri 13th Dec, 7pm. Swedish Choir Santa Lucia Day celebration. All welcome.

Sun 15th Dec, 11am. Gaudete, Advent III. 7: 12: 499 . Mass in Phrygian Mode, Wood. E’en so, Lord Jesus, quickly come, Manz.

Sun 15th Dec, 6pm at St David’s Church. Service of Readings & Carols.

Wed 18th Dec, 7.30pm.  The Revd. Dr. Alastair Logan “In Search of Ancient Gnostics”

Sun 22nd Dec, 11am. Advent IV. 21: 57: 186. Missa Brevissima, Casciolini. Ave Maria, Arcadelt.

Tue 24th Dec, 11.30pm. Midnight Mass of the Nativity. With Carols from the Gallery at 11pm. Hymns: 26: 29: 30. Mass in F, Sumsion. O magnum mysterium, Byrd.

Wed 25th Dec, 10.30am (N.B. earlier time) Christmas Day Sung Mass. 24: 32: 30 (v1,2,6,7). Mass in F, Darke. Ding, dong, Merrily on High, arr. Woodward.
Sun 29th Dec, 11am. Christmas I. 25: 39: 42. Merbecke/Shaw. O men from the fields, Cooke.

Sunday 5th January 2020. Christmas II/Epiphany. Sung Mass. 50: 47: 52. Mass in F, Wood. Whence is that goodly fragrance, arr. Willcocks.

6pm Choral Evensong & Benediction for Epiphany. Smith Responses. Psalm 98 (&100). Hymn 49. Stanford in C. Anthem: Christus, Mendelssohn. O salutaris 269 Tantum Ergo 268.

Sun 12th Jan, 11am. Epiphany I/Baptism of the Lord. 56: 495: 58. Missa l’Hora passa, Viadana. Lully, Lullay – Keitch

Sun 19th Jan, 11am. Epiphany II. 55: 294: 467. Missa Sancti Nicolai, Nicholson. The Lamb, Tavener.

Sat 25th Jan, 9.30am. Men’s Breakfast at the Farmers’ Union, Queen’s Terrace.

Sun 26th Jan, 11am. Epiphany III. 36: 302: 57. Mass in F, Darke. Beati Quorum Via, Stanford.

Wed 29th Jan, 7.30pm Lecture. Dr. Robert Guyver will speak on John Coleridge Patteson, the martyred Bishop of Melanesia.

Sunday 2nd February, 11am. Candlemas. Sung Mass. 439: 408: 44. Mass in C&F, Nunc Dimittis in B flat, both by Stanford.

6pm Choral Evensong & Benediction for Candlemas. Reading Responses. Psalm 122 (&132). Hymn: 475. Stanford in B flat. Anthem: O nata lux, Lauridsen. O salutaris, Tantum Ergo.

The post Dec 2019 & Jan 2020 at St Michael’s appeared first on St Michael & All Angels.

Regular times:- Sunday Sung Mass 11am. Choir Practice 7-8.30pm Tuesdays – new singers always welcome. Vespers is sung Tuesdays & Thursdays at 6pm. Matins & Low Mass take place Wednesdays at 9.30/10am.

Sun 23 Dec, Advent IV. 11am Sung Mass. Missa Brevissima, Casciolini. Ave Maria, Arcadelt.

Mon 24 Dec. Christmas Eve. 11.30pm. Midnight Mass of the Nativity & Blessing of the Crib. Sumsion in F. O magnum mysterium, Keitch. At 11pm, the Choir will sing Carols from the Gallery or on Mt Dinham.

Tues 25 Dec. Christmas Day. N.B. 10.30am (Turkey time!). Sung Mass of the Nativity & Prayers at the Crib. Merbecke/Shaw. In dulci jubilo, Praetorius.

There will be no weekday Masses for St Stephen, St John or Holy Innocents at St Michael’s – you might like to try the Cathedral, or St David’s on Thursday at 10.30am..

Sun 30 Dec, Christmas I. 11am Sung Mass.

Sun 6 January 2019, Epiphany of the Lord. 11am Sung Mass. Wood in F. Whence is that goodly fragrance, Willcocks.
Sun 6 Jan, 6pm Choral Evensong & Benediction. Smith. Psalm 98 & 100. Stanford in C. Anthem: from Christus, Mendelssohn. O salutaris & Tantum Ergo, plainsong.

Sun 13 Jan, Baptism of the Lord. 11am Sung Mass. Missa l’Hora passa, Viadana. O Lord, give Thy Holy Spirit, Tallis.

Sun 20 Jan, Epiphany II. 11am Sung Mass. Rheinberger in F. New Year Carol, Britten.

Sat 26 Jan, 9am. Men’s Breakfast at The Imperial.

Sun 27 Jan, Epiphany III. 11am Sung Mass. Missa Sancti Nicolai, Nicholson. O sing joyfully, Batten.

Weds 30 Jan, 7.30pm. St Michael’s Lecture. Dr Darren Schreiber (Univ of Exeter) on “The Neuroscience of Political and Religious Beliefs”. All welcome, free entry, voluntary donations, refreshments & discussion.

Sun 3 February, Candlemas (transferred from 2 Feb). 11am Sung Mass. Stanford in C&F. Nunc Dimittis in B flat.
Sun 3 Feb, 6pm Choral Evensong & Benediction. Reading. Psalm 122 & 132. Stanford in B flat. Anthem: Hodie beata virgo, Byrd. O salutaris & Tantum Ergo.

Advance notice:- Weds 20 Feb, 7.30pm. St Michael’s Lecture. Prof Emma Loosley (Univ of Exeter) The Syrian Conflict: What is it Really about?

We are delighted to welcome Matt Clark as Organist and Harry Sullivan, Organ Scholar at the University Chapel, to share playing for our Services and Choir Practices.
Wishing you a peaceful & joyful Christmastide from all at St Michael’s Mount Dinham.

Richard Barnes

The post Christmas & Epiphany at St Michael’s appeared first on St Michael & All Angels.

December & January Events @ St Michael’s
Sun 3rd Dec, Advent Sunday. 10.45am Sung Mass & 6pm Choral Evensong & Benediction.
Wed 6th Dec, St Nicolas of Myra, 9.30am BCP Matins, 10am Low Mass.
Thu 7th Dec, 6pm CBS Plainsong Mass. St Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, Teacher of the Faith (397)
Fri 8th Dec, 6.30pm at St David’s Church. Community Christmas Concert. £5.
Sat 9th Dec, 4.30pm. Exeter Chorale Concert. Veni Sponsa Christi (£10/£6 students)
Sun 10th Dec, Advent II. 10.45am Mass, 6pm, Advent Procession – Thanks to all who came.
Sun 17th Dec, Gaudete, Advent III. 10.45am Mass (Rose Vestments).
Sun 24th Dec, Advent IV! 10.45am Mass.

Sun 24th Dec, Christmas Eve. 11pm Gallery Carols, 11.30pm Midnight Mass of the Nativity.
Mon 25th Dec, Christmas Day. N.B. 10.30am Sung Mass of the Nativity.
Tue 26th Dec, St Stephen Please check website/twitter for details of any Services this week.
Sun 31st Dec, Christmas I, Holy Family. 10.45am No Clergy, so Sung Matins!

Sun 7th Jan, Epiphany. 10.45am Mass & 6pm Choral Evensong & Benediction.
Sun 14th Jan, Epiphany II. 10.45am Mass.
Tue 16th Jan, 7.30pm at St David’s Church. Institution & Induction of Preb Nigel Guthrie as Vicar of the Parish.
Thu 18th Jan, 12noon Parish Lunch at Exeter College @34 Restaurant – sign up in churches.
Sun 21st Jan, Epiphany III. Sung Mass.
Sat 27th Jan, Men’s Breakfast or Brunch – see in churches for details.
Sun 28th Jan, Epiphany IV/Septuagesima. Sung Mass.
Wed 31st Jan, 7.30pm. Apologies – NO St Michael’s Lecture this month.
Fri 2nd Feb, Candlemas. 7.30pm Sung Mass.

Regular Events:-
Tuesdays & Thursdays, 6pm Plainsong Vespers & Meditation.
Tuesdays, 7-8.30pm Choir Practice.
Wednesdays, 9.30am BCP Morning Prayer, 10am Low Mass.

See Twitter https://twitter.com/StMikes_Exeter for details and updates.

Concerts. Please support the Community Christmas Concert at St David’s Church on Friday 8 December at 6.30pm with a wealth of local talent performing – including Oliver Nicholson & Richard Barnes giving a spirited rendition of “Watchman, what of the night?” accompanied by Natasha Goldsworth at the pianoforte. Tickets £5.

On Saturday 9 December at 4.30pm there’s a Tea-time Concert at St Michael’s Church as Exeter Chorale present glorious Renaissance Masses & Motets by Palestrina, Lassus & Guerrero, with tea & cakes, all for £10.

Choir Music. Thanks to Tim Hampshire and organist Nigel Atkinson for leading the Fauré Requiem for our All Soul’s Day Mass, and to Graham Keitch for his setting of ‘For the Fallen’.

Sunday 10 December at 6pm we have the beautiful Advent Procession guiding us from darkness to light through music, prayer and readings, with seasonal refreshments afterwards.

Our Music List & Organist Rota for Advent to Epiphany are online, and we thank all who are pulling together to carry on providing St Michael’s with music fitting for the church’s liturgy.

I hope we will sing “O magnum mysterium” as the words ‘ut animalia viderent Dominum natum jacentem in praesepio’, ‘that animals should see the new-born Lord lying in a manger’ bring the Incarnation of Jesus truly down to Earth, and also remind me of Thomas Hardy’s poem “The Oxen”.

Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock.
“Now they are all on their knees,”
An elder said as we sat in a flock
By the embers in hearthside ease.

We pictured the meek mild creatures where
They dwelt in their strawy pen,
Nor did it occur to one of us there
To doubt they were kneeling then.

Lent Reading Group. Advance notice. Following last year’s successful meetings exploring the ‘Confessions’ of St Augustine, Oliver Nicholson will lead a series of Wednesday evening gatherings for Lent 2018 looking at the founder of Desert Monasticism, St Antony of Egypt (c.251-356), whose Life was influential in the Conversion of Augustine. The likely dates are Wed 21 Feb to Wed 21 Mar, but you don’t have to commit to all 5 Wednesdays.

Wishing you all a Holy Advent & a Merry Christmas.

Richard Barnes

The post Dec17/Jan18 at St Michael’s appeared first on St Michael & All Angels.

This is Incarnation, the messy humanity of it all, for Mary & Joseph, the Shepherds and their families, ruthless Herod and his clever advisers, the Magi with their expectations; explored in our words & music, as we ponder the selfishness, sadness and sinfulness of 2016.

There is a strange symmetry in the life of Jesus, sometimes picked up in poems or paintings – stable cave and rock-hewn tomb, the wood of crib and cross, swaddling-bands and grave-clothes, the spices of the Wise men and the Women, Angel’s words to the Shepherds and the Women, the cruel pragmatism of politicians and zealots.

We hope our worship & fellowship at St Michael’s and St David’s will help us all to delight in the Season of Incarnation, Jesus Son of God, born in humility, Joy to the World.

Sunday 4th December, Advent II, 10.45am Sung Mass. Missa Brevis by Lotti; Motet “Canite Tuba” by Guerrero. …Veni, Domine, et noli tardare. Sound the trumpet …Come, Lord, and do not delay.

Our beautiful candlelit Advent Procession at St Michael’s is on Sunday 4th December at 6pm. Prayers, Readings, Hymns and Carols illuminate the 7 Great O Antiphons of the Advent Hymn “O come, O come Emmanuel”. The choir will sing the Pergolesi/Durante setting of the Magnificat. The service is followed by mulled wine and mince pies.

Thursday 8th Dec at 6pm. Vespers for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. All are welcome.

Sunday 11th Dec, Advent III, Gaudete Sunday with Rose Red Vestments. 10.45am. Mass in A minor by Casciolini; E’en so Lord Jesus, by Manz.

Sunday 11th Dec at 2pm, the Choir will sing Carols in the Chapel at Killerton House. National Trust admission applies. Please come and support us.

Sunday 11th Dec at 4.30pm, Exeter Chorale, conducted by Dr Nigel Browne, presents a Tea-time Concert with a “watery” theme. Music includes Stanford “The Blue Bird”, Tippett “Deep River”, a couple of stormy Baroque Motets, plus Drunken Sailors and a Mermaid! Admission £8 (children free) including refreshments.

Tuesday 13th Dec at 6pm, this month’s CBS Plainsong Mass celebrated by Fr David Hastings on St Lucy’s Day. All welcome.

Saturday 17th Dec at 5pm – Carol Concert with St Michael’s Choir in aid of the charity Refugee Support Devon.

Sunday 18th Dec, Advent IV, 10.45am. Mass in Phrygian Mode, by Wood. The Motet is “Anna mater Matris Christi” by John Plummer, a 15th century piece on the worthiness of St Anne to be the grandmother of Jesus.

Sunday 18th Dec, at St David’s Church at 6pm – Carol Service and Farewell to Canon Tom Honey & Jeanie at 7pm.

Saturday 24th December Christmas Eve, 11pm Carols from the West Gallery, 11.30pm, Midnight Mass. A “Victoria” Christmas, Missa “O Quam Gloriosum” & Motet “O Magnum Mysterium”.

Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock. “Now they are all on their knees,” An elder said as we sat in a flock By the embers in hearthside ease.
We pictured the meek mild creatures where They dwelt in their strawy pen, Nor did it occur to one of us there To doubt they were kneeling then.
So fair a fancy few would weave In these years! Yet, I feel, If someone said on Christmas Eve, “Come; see the oxen kneel,
“In the lonely barton by yonder coomb Our childhood used to know,” I should go with him in the gloom, Hoping it might be so.
“The Oxen” by Thomas Hardy, was published in The Times on Christmas Eve 1915. On the face of it, a pastoral idyll of worshipping animals and simple country folk, but below the surface are Hardy’s growing doubts and the irony of such a myth ‘in these years’ of war raging in the mud of the trenches. Yet still hope lingers for peace on earth, upon the midnight clear.

Sunday 25th Dec, Christmas Day, 10.45am Mass in F & In the Bleak Midwinter, both by Harold Darke.

Holy Communion/Low Mass will be said at 10am at St Michael’s Church by Canon Tom Honey on the 3 Feast Days following Christmas.
Monday 26th Dec, St Stephen, Deacon & First Martyr, 10am.
Tuesday 27th Dec, St John, Apostle &Evangelist, 10am.
Wednesday 28th Dec, Holy Innocents Day, Childermas, 10am.

Sunday 1st January 2017, Holy Name of Jesus, 10.45am. This will be Fr Tom Honey’s final service at St Michael’s before moving. Mass in F by Sir William Harris. Carol: Infant Holy, Infant Lowly, trad. arr. Willcocks. N.B. No Evensong today, but please come to…

Friday 6th January, Epiphany, 7.30pm. Mass in F by Sumsion; O God who by the leading of a star, by Attwood. Celebrant & Preacher Fr Christopher Durrant. Please support the first Feast of 2017.
Richard Barnes.

The post December 2016 at St Michael’s appeared first on St Michael & All Angels.

Christmas Eve and young Pychester University Graduates, Jo & Mary, one unexpectedly pregnant, are returning to Pychester from North Devon by Stagecoach Bus (more like a donkey says Jo) with no plans other than continuing to avoid their parents, who don’t know about the baby which is due any day.

Jo works as an engineer for a Christian Green Energy company, Wave, Sun & Wind – the sustainable trinity. Mary teaches Maths & R.E.. It had been a bit embarrassing when the kids started talking – should’ve paid more attention in S&R lessons, Miss – but she really wanted this special baby now. Mary seems to have fallen pregnant at the Spring Equinox rave at Stonehenge, when she felt overshadowed by a white winged presence. Jo has no recollection of this and is mystified how it could have happened, but is forgiving and loyal.

The Shepherd family farms on the hills above the River Pyke and they have diversified into alpacas, providing wool to craft knitters producing Christmas jumpers for the well-heeled hunters of special gifts in London boutiques.

Last Christmas their new Evangelical Vicar banned the long established village West Gallery Band & Quire as “folk religion”. But the way he had done Church and shared Jesus at St Simon Says in Pychester didn’t excite the country folk and tired commuters of Nether Pyke, and now he plays drums in the Worship Group to a near empty Church.

An Angel, or it might have been that advert for BBC Radio 6 Music, told the Shepherds, “There is a place, where sacred music comes to life. A church like no other in Pychester, with one foot in its Victorian past, and one in the future. A place to make new friendships and discoveries, and find amazing live music. Where the next Mass or Motet you hear, could be the best church music ever composed. This is St Pythagoras & All Angles, where friendly people meet God in formal worship and fine music.” So they hied off to St Pythag’s, and now they come and worship there, singing in the choir.

Three wise and wealthy men from London, that great Imperial city in the East, where you can buy anything and anyone if you have the finance, have travelled to Pychester St David’s early on Christmas Eve from Paddington by Great Western Railway. First Class, of course, but that stretch from Newbury to Westbury still reminded two of them of the camel ride on last year’s foursome holiday to see what little was left of the treasures of Persia with their wives.

They follow to where the bright red light hangs on the crane over the Guildhall redevelopment like Rudolph’s nose, leaving their cases and gifts at the fully-booked Royal Lion Hotel. They are Thomas, a surgeon, Richard, a banker, and Harold, a software engineer and church musician.

Harold, mid-30s, is in a relationship with Lizzie, the pretty young Curate at their prosperous West London Church, St Anna’s, mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary and patron saint of stair-lifts. They met at the Croquet-themed Lent Course and hit it off straight away, swinging his mallet firmly in her direction.

But Lizzie needs time for her Parish and parents at Christmas, and so has arranged for Harold, with Thomas & Richard, to volunteer, serving lunches and seasonal cheer to the homeless, at St Petrock’s Centre in Pychester for a few days. Go West, you men, she said, with a twinkle in her eye.

Thomas & Richard, late-50s, are long-time friends, with children not long left home and wives, Christina & Annabel, who have just started living together in Thomas’s house. So Thomas has had to move in with Richard and they are looking at friendship and intimacy from a different angle.

Richard had joked at the Men’s Advent Breakfast that there was more excitement these days in the bedroom department in John Lewis than in his marriage, and Thomas confided the “only connect” he had with his wife now involved Egyptian hieroglyphs.

However, they will all meet up for a civilised New Year party at Harold’s parents’ large house in the Cotswolds. ‘Aga Father’ Christians, Lizzie calls them, but their hearts are in the right place, running the local FoodBank and complaining to their MP about the impact yet another round of cuts is having on services in Bourton-on-the-Wold.

The three men have gifts ready for their partners; a warm golden alpaca Xmas jumper, a bottle of frankincense perfume (for the woman priest in your life, the advert said), and a cuddly Teddy (more in hope than expectation).

Their first clients for lunches at St Petrock’s having been served and cheered, the men repair to Caffe Nerd, as Harold calls it, to skype Lizzie in St Anna’s church office as she prepares for the Christingle service. “There’s still a few of us left in the big orange,” she says. “I’ve told Pixy you’ll sing Midnight Mass at St Pythag’s tonight, Harry. Choir practice at 10 o’clock sharp.”

Jo & Mary are walking slowly in from the Bus Station past the 3 dozen decorated Christmas trees along the Roman Wall; so many needs, but so much charity, compassion and generosity too.

With no room at the Grandiloquent Carol Service at Pychester Cathedral, owing to Elf & Safety, Thomas, Richard & Harold head back to their hotel for canned carols and a wassail cup of local cider, just minutes before Jo & Mary are turned away from the cathedral too.

The Street Pastor, tells them the real Good News is at St Simon Says, but it’s so noisy and crowded, and Jo & Mary feel fingers on Bible verses judging them. They leave as the preacher gets into his stride; never mind Mary on her donkey, God could just have sent Jesus on the Palm Sunday donkey to save sinners; this Christmas Jesus was a first instalment in paying the price for our sins. It was like they’d jumped 3 months and 30-odd years – it’s Christmas, for heaven’s sake!

Pret a Manger is more welcoming and Jo asks if the Baby Jesus is in the Manger yet. There are Christmas sandwiches, warm smiles and Py-lattes (the only workout I can cope with now quips Mary, great with child), until it closes and they are out into the cold, cold winter’s night.

In Candy Street, the shops selling Yuletide gifts, magic crystals, alternative therapies and baby clothes have all closed, and the clubs are getting lively. With a biting wind and snow in the air, as foretold by the weather forecasters, Paul Street was even more an Abomination of Desolation than normal. So Jo & Mary plod slowly now down to their old haunt at the City Gate Hotel.

Peter Shepherd holds the door open for them. “We’re just warming the toes and tonsils before choir practice,” he says. “Can I get you something?” Jo & Mary join his wife, Agnes, and their children, Shaun and Eve, high maintenance now but worth every pound, for a drink.

With the Hotel fully booked, the Shepherds suggest Jo & Mary come to St Pythag’s with them for Midnight Mass. “You can come back with us afterwards,” said Agnes, “we had Eve at Christmas 20 years ago; looks like you’ve not got long to wait now, Mary.” “Where do we live, Shaun?” “Don’t tell them, Nether Pyke!” And they all laugh.

“Jo’s brother, Gabriel, sings at Salisbury,” says Mary, blushing. Snow is falling, snow on snow, as they cross the Victorian Iron Bridge with its Narnia street-lights to St Pythag’s Church. The sharp-eyed Peregrines watch from their lofty pinnacles as two young pigeons flutter past, but they are safe tonight; their sacrifice still 40 days away.

Mary & Jo sit at the back while the Choir rehearses. They all seem to be bilingual in English and Latin and are rather good. Jo checks the history and geography of the place on the fascinating church website. One of the tenors looks like that new guy at Lizzie’s church in London, thinks Jo, as Mary returns from the loo with the news. “Waters broken – I’m scared, love.”

The candlelight is not too dim nor the clouds of incense from the procession too thick for Mary not to notice her father and Uncle Thomas slipping in in the nick of time with snow on their shoes, as the Full Moon smiles down on an expectant Pychester.

“So that’s why you two have been avoiding us all Autumn,” whispers Thomas. “I thought you’d realised about Christina and Annabel, and were not as broad-minded as you young folk are supposed to be. How frequent are the contractions, Mary? I delivered you, as your mother will have told you, and unless you’d rather chance A&E at midnight, it looks like I may be delivering your baby too. Relax and let the beauty of the music and liturgy, and the mystery of the Incarnation waft over you. There’s 150 years of faithful prayer and holy people around us. Is there a vestry if we need it?”

Fr Jonathan’s sermon is based on Thomas Hardy’s poem, The Oxen, 100 years old this very night. “Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock. Now they are all on their knees. When I was a rural priest on Dartmoor, the heavenly and the earthy came together more easily for country folk. The three great days were Rogation Sunday, Harvest Festival and Christmas; the church year and the farming year in harmony.”

“But then as now, and back when Jesus was born, people were concerned, afraid despite the message of the Angels, at the necessary but nasty business of war where there should have been peace on earth. And while St Paul puts Love ahead of Faith and Hope, for many this Christmas, Hope for peace is top of their Santa list – the list of holy things, our prayers. With the world and people moving so fast, we have the social media but do we really talk or listen? Do we still have a message worth sharing? Tonight in the birth of the Christchild, the prince of peace, we do.”

They stop to look at the baby Jesus in his manger now. Soon Joseph, Mary and the child would be refugees in Egypt for a few years, until Herod was gone and they could return to Nazareth. The organist plays a suitably pastoral improvisation on the fine restored pipe organ, as they smile at Harry in the choir and wait to receive Communion. Getting up from the altar rail, Mary feels a movement, grabs Jo’s arm and looks hopefully at Uncle Thomas.

Into the choir vestry, put on the heater, Richard gets some hot water from the steaming urn which the ladies at the back had felt might be needed, and grabs some tea towels, not for dressing up as shepherds now. This is a simple story, naïve you might say, so as the choir sings “In dulci jubilo”, the birth of this Christmas baby is swift “in praesepio … matris in gremio” and safe “ubi sunt gaudia … nova cantica”.

“We could call her ‘Dulcie’ then,” says a euphorically relieved Jo, “or ‘Babybel’ after your mother.”

“I think she’ll prefer ‘Carol’,” whispers an exhausted Mary, as she takes the baby in her arms for her first cuddle and feed.

At St Anna’s in London, Revd Lizzie sits Christina and Annabel down amid the post-Mass chatter, prosecco and nibbles. “There’s something I need to tell you – don’t panic. By some strange miracle you’ve both just become grandmothers – your children seem to be just as complex as their parents. Somehow Jo & Mary are at Pychester with Tom & Dick, and Gabriel has just fainted in the choir stalls at Salisbury.”

“I know it’s Christmas, but another virgin birth does seem medically unlikely,” enquires Thomas doubtfully.

“Yes, sorry Jo, I didn’t know how to tell you,” Mary replies. “I couldn’t risk losing you. Remember we were visiting Gabriel at Salisbury for Passion Sunday and Annunciation. We’ve been friends so long, grown up together, you and he and me. Gabriel and I both wanted to see if there was more between us now. It was nice, and very effective, but it wasn’t love. Gabriel is thinking about coming out – no, not leaving the Choir, silly, he loves floating around in that white surplice. But it’s you that I truly love, Joanna.”

Richard Barnes – Church of St Pythagoras & All Angles – December 2015.
(Occasional similarities to people and places you might recognise are unavoidable and kindly meant.)

If you enjoyed this seasonal offering, a little donation to St Michael’s would be most appreciated. An earlier, slightly longer and more preachy version can be downloaded as Pychester Christmas Story. Merry Christmas.

St Michael’s, like St Pythag’s, seeks to share the love, joy and forgiveness of God with all, single or partnered, wherever events have drawn our graphs in the complex phase-space of faith, hope, relationship, sexuality and gender.

The post A Pychester Christmas Carol appeared first on St Michael & All Angels.

Click “Events” for details of many of the following:-

29th November is Advent Sunday. We start our 10.45am service with The Litany sung in procession; this is Cranmer’s first piece of English Liturgy, published in 1544. The Setting is Kenneth Leighton’s austere Mass in D from 1965, and the Motet is Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence, composed by Edgar Bairstow in 1906.

On Wednesdays 2nd, 9th & 16th December, St Michael’s will be open from 8.15 – 9.15am to offer Breakfast and hospitality to the parents and children of St David’s School as they arrive, and to our other neighbours, the residents of Mount Dinham. If you can help with this outreach, please contact Chris Heaven or Sabrina Groeschel.

Thursday 3rd December at 6pm, there will be a sung Requiem Mass in memory of Nick Heath.

Sunday 6th December, Advent II, 10.45am Mass. A cappella Setting: Missa “Dixit Maria” by Hassler, and Motet “Canite Tuba” by Guerrero. (…Veni, Domine, et noli tardare. Sound the trumpet …Come, Lord, and do not delay.)

Our beautiful candlelit Advent Procession at St Michael’s is on Sunday 6th December at 6pm. Prayers, Readings, Hymns and Carols illuminate the 7 “Great O” Antiphons of the Advent Hymn “O come, O come Emmanuel”. The service culminates with Palestrina’s double choir setting of the Magnificat, and is followed by mulled wine and mince pies.

Tuesday 8th December at 6pm. CBS Mass for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. All are welcome at this Plainsong Mass.

Saturday 12th December at 7.30pm, Exeter Chorale, conducted by Dr Nigel Browne, presents a programme of seasonal music, Renaissance and Modern, on the theme of Images of the Incarnation. Admission £8 (£5 Students, children free) including refreshments.
ExCh_Winter15_Poster
Sunday 13th December, at St David’s Church at 9.30am, Confirmation Service with the Bishop of Crediton, Rt Revd Sarah Mullally.

Sunday 13th December, Advent III, Gaudete Sunday with Rose Red Vestments at 10.45am. Mass in E by Harold Darke and Rejoice in the Lord Alway.

Sunday 13th December, St Michael’s Choir is at Killerton House, Broadclyst, from 2-3.30pm for an afternoon of Carol Singing in the Estate Chapel (NOT the Music Room). National Trust admission applies. Please come and support us. The House has Narnia themed decorations this year.

Thursday 17th December at 7.30pm – Our traditional Service of Nine Lessons & Carols at St Michael’s.

Sunday 20th December, Advent IV, 10.45am. Lighting the 4th candle and thinking of Mary, with Missa “Ave Maris Stella” by Victoria, and Motet “Alma Mater Redemptoris” by Palestrina. Copies of “Prope Est Dominus” by Michael Haydn, from this Sunday’s Gradual – The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him – were not as nigh as we hoped.

Sunday 20th December, at St David’s Church at 6pm – Another more contemporary Nine Lessons & Carols. Why not try 18 L&C this year?

And on Christmas Eve, Thursday 24th December at 4pm at St David’s Church, a child friendly Christingle Service and Nativity tableau.

Thursday 24th December, 11pm Carols from the West Gallery, 11.30pm, Midnight Mass at St Michael’s. The beautifully tuneful Mass in F by Charles Wood (at his most Rutteresque, if that’s not too much of an anachronism) and the ever popular 1837 arrangement of “In Dulci Jubilo” by R L Pearsall, translating the German of the original macaronic text into English but letting the Latin stand.

Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock. “Now they are all on their knees,” An elder said as we sat in a flock By the embers in hearthside ease.

We pictured the meek mild creatures where They dwelt in their strawy pen, Nor did it occur to one of us there To doubt they were kneeling then.

So fair a fancy few would weave In these years! Yet, I feel, If someone said on Christmas Eve, “Come; see the oxen kneel,

“In the lonely barton by yonder coomb Our childhood used to know,” I should go with him in the gloom, Hoping it might be so.

This poem, “The Oxen” by Thomas Hardy, published in The Times on Christmas Eve 1915, is exactly 100 years old. On the face of it, a bucolic idyll of worshipping animals (O magnum mysterium) and simple country folk, but just below the surface are Hardy’s own growing doubts and the irony of such a myth ‘in these years’ of war raging in the mud of the trenches. And perhaps still a lingering hope for peace on the earth, upon the midnight clear.

Friday 25th December, Christmas Day, 10.30am (N.B.) Mass in F by Harold Darke, and Motet: Born Today, by Jan Sweelinck. Come and celebrate Christmas morning with us giving thanks for God’s gift in Jesus.

Saturday 26th December, St Stephen Said Mass at 10am.

Sunday 27th December, St John the Evangelist, the disciple whom Jesus loved. 10.45am Mass. Missa & Motet “O Magnum Mysterium” by Victoria.

Monday 28th December, Holy Innocents Said Mass at 10am.

Sunday 3rd January 2016, Christmas II, 10.45am. Mass for Four Voices by William Byrd. Motet: Lullay my Liking, by Gustav Holst. N.B. No Evensong today, but please come to…

Wednesday 6th January, Epiphany, 7.30pm. Mass in C & F by Stanford. Motet: Three Kings from Persian lands afar, by Cornelius. Please make this Event a priority in your diary. We shall be formally thanking Fr David Hastings for the gifts of his ministry among us at St Michael’s over several years, as he retires from his position as Honorary Assistant Priest.

Incarnation Actually.

No doubt the joyous, uplifting and slightly naughty film “Love Actually” will be gracing our TV screens again with its ensemble story of the lead up to a secular Christmas, in which most characters, but not quite all, find love one way or another.

Our sacred seasons of Advent & Christmas are also about the earthing of religion in relationships, strained or fulfilling, in the unsettling humility of God become human, one of us, at his mother’s breast, the outbuilding behind the Inn echoing to his crying, awake in a manger.

Theology finds a word, Incarnation, to disguise the naked fleshliness, the messy humanity of it all, but I wonder how was it for Mary & Joseph, the Shepherds and their families, Herod and his clever advisers, the Magi with their expectations?

These ideas are explored in our music over these seasons. The big Gospel song at the end of that film’s Nativity Play says – All I want for Christmas … is you. We might rephrase it as – All we need for Christmas … is Jesus.

But what that means to each of us will be different, because we are all loved but each different. How we respond to the Christmas story this year, its message and its music, will probably depend on how events have affected the various physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual facets of our life.

There is a strange symmetry in the life of Jesus, sometimes picked up in poems or paintings – stable cave and rock-hewn tomb, the wood of crib and cross, swaddling-bands and grave-clothes, the spices of the Wise men and the Women, angelic words to the Shepherds and the Women (you can find both in our East window), the cruel pragmatism of the political elite, even the little donkeys of the journey and Palm Sunday.

And there through it all, from start to finish of those special 30-odd years, is Mary, uniquely Mother of God, and also representing us in our humanity.

Wishing you all the love, joy and peace that we so need this Christmas and New Year.

Richard Barnes.

The post December at St Michael’s appeared first on St Michael & All Angels.

All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. John 1:3.

As Sydney Carter (1915-2004) wrote in the 1960s, reflecting the flourishing of diversity and the interest in Time and Space:-

Every star shall sing a carol, Every creature high or low.
Come and praise the King of Heaven, By whatever name you know.

God above man below, Holy is the name I know.

When the king of all creation, Had a cradle on the earth.
Holy was the human body, Holy was the human birth.

Who can tell what other cradle, High above the Milky Way,
Still may rock the King of Heaven, On another Christmas day?

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14.

On Friday 26th, the Feast of St Stephen, and Saturday 27th, St John the Evangelist, Low Mass will be said at 10am, but those who sing 6pm Vespers will have a well-deserved rest until Tuesday 6th January Vespers for Epiphany.

Sunday 28th Dec, The Holy Innocents, 10.45am Mass. Setting: Missa L’Hora Passa, Viadana. Motet: The Coventry Carol, Trad. Whether the killing of infants in Bethlehem by King Herod is fact or myth, the Church and the World have continued to abuse and hurt the innocent and childlike for too long, and caused women to grieve. Only the just and gentle rule of Jesus Christ can give us hope.

That was the true Light, which lighteth everyone that cometh into the world. John 1:9.

Sunday 4th January 2015, Christmas II, 10.45am Sung Mass.

Sunday 4th Jan, 6pm, Choral Evensong and Benediction.

Tuesday 6th Jan, Epiphany, 6pm Plainsong Vespers, 6.30pm Choir Practice, 7.30pm Sung Mass. Motet: We Three Kings, Hopkins arr. Alex West.

The Recitals @ St Michael’s Series is re-launched in 2015 with a monthly Friday Evening slot. Friday 9th January at 7.30pm will feature Eleanor Little and Ralf Ayling-Miller, the winners of our Young Organists’ Competition, so that promises to be a splendid start to the New Year. Admission £5 (£3).

The post Happy Christmas appeared first on St Michael & All Angels.

In God’s Grand Design, His Son Jesus was born in an Extension of the local pub in Bethlehem, and we extend a warm inclusive welcome to you to join us at St Michael’s over the Christmas season, as we celebrate the birth of the Christ-child, in whom God mends the gap between humanity and holiness.

Thursday 18th Dec, 7.30pm at St Michael’s. A traditional Service of Nine Lessons & Carols. Hymns, Carols, Bidding Prayer and Readings telling the great story from Adam & Eve to Mary, Joseph and Jesus, the Shepherds and the Magi.

Saturday 20th Dec, 7.30pm. Exeter Chorale visit with a Concert of Christmas Music from 17th Century Venice & Saxony. The exciting sound of 8-part singing, recorders and strings will echo around St Michael’s. And the Christmas Story will be re-told to the music of Heinrich Schutz, with guest soloist, Tony Yates, from Topsham. Tickets £7.50 on the door, including refreshments.

Sunday 21st Dec, Advent IV, 10.45am Mass. The Readings concentrate on Mary, and the choir’s music goes European. Setting: Missa “Dixit Maria”, Hans Leo Hassler. Motet: Hymne a la Vierge, Villette.

Sunday 21st Dec, St Michael’s Choir is delighted to have the opportunity to go Carolling at Killerton House. We will be entertaining visitors to this National Trust property in the Music Room with Carols, old and new, from 2pm to 4pm. Supporters welcome.

Wednesday 24th December, Christmas Eve, 11.30pm Mass. Preceded by Carols from the Gallery at 11pm. Setting: Missa “O magnum mysterium”, Victoria. Motet: A babe is born, I wys, Anon.
If someone said on Christmas Eve, “Come; see the oxen kneel.” I should go with him in the gloom, Hoping it might be so. Thomas Hardy, The Oxen, Christmas Eve 1915.

Thursday 25th December, Christmas Day, N.B. 10.30am Mass. Setting: Mass in C & F, C V Stanford. Motet: O little one sweet, J S Bach.

On Friday 26th, the Feast of St Stephen, and Saturday 27th, St John the Evangelist, Low Mass will be said at 10am, but those who sing 6pm Vespers will have a well-deserved rest until Tuesday 6th January Vespers for Epiphany.

Sunday 28th Dec, The Holy Innocents, 10.45am Mass. Setting: Missa L’Hora Passa, Viadana. Motet: The Coventry Carol, Trad. Whether the killing of infants in Bethlehem by King Herod is fact or myth, the Church and the World have continued to abuse and hurt the innocent and childlike for too long, and caused women to grieve. Only the just and gentle rule of Jesus Christ can give us hope.

Sunday 4th January 2015, Christmas II, 10.45am Sung Mass.

Sunday 4th Jan, 6pm, Choral Evensong and Benediction.

Tuesday 6th Jan, Epiphany, 6pm Plainsong Vespers, 6.30pm Choir Practice, 7.30pm Sung Mass. Motet: We Three Kings, arr. Alex West.

The Recitals @ St Michael’s Series is re-launched in 2015 with a monthly Friday Evening slot. Friday 9th January at 7.30pm will feature Eleanor Little and Ralf Ayling-Miller, the winners of our Young Organists’ Competition, so that promises to be a splendid start to the New Year. Admission £5 (£3).

The St Michael’s Lectures for 2015 commence on Wed 28th Jan with Dr Nigel Browne giving an Illustrated History of Church Music in Devon, featuring West Gallery Musicians and the St Michael’s Choir.

Wishing you a joyful Christmas and a peaceful New Year from all at St Michael’s.

P.S. The Church of England in her wisdom has extended the office of bishop to women as well as men, and has announced Revd Libby Lane to become suffragan Bishop of Stockport, in succession to our Bishop Robert Atwell; we pray for her. People holding both (all?) views on this issue worship together at St Michael’s.

Speaking personally, I welcome this, not as a new era but a natural extension; a matter of wholeness rather than equality; the result, not so much of 40 years of lobbying, but of 150 years of development since our Anglo-Catholic forefathers founded convents and colleges so that their daughters could have education, independence and as full a religious life as Victorian constraints allowed. And I think many of them will be rejoicing too. RB.

The post Christmas Story appeared first on St Michael & All Angels.

Fr David, Canon Tom and the clergy, servers, choir and congregation extend a warm welcome each and all to come and join us at St Michael’s, Mount Dinham, for any or all of our Services over the Advent, Christmas and Epiphany seasons, as we celebrate the light of Jesus coming into the darkness of his world and ours.

And indeed, for those who might find Services at St Mike’s a little strange or too intense, there are also 3 pre-Xmas events where overt religion is kept to a minimum. Click on “Events” for more detail on individual events.

Wednesday 10th December sees the Choir in Concert at 7.30pm – Christmas by Candlelight will include the splendid Fantasia on Christmas Carols by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and we’ll Ding dong merrily, In dulci jubilo, with Shepherds and Kings and wish you a Merry Christmas! Admission £5 (£3).

Then on Saturday 13th December from 3-5pm there’s an Open Invitation to an Afternoon of Festive Food, Drink and Song at St Mike’s for friends, neighbours, families and passers-by. Do Drop In.

And on Saturday 20th Dec at 7.30pm, Exeter Chorale visit with a Concert of Christmas Music from 17th Century Venice & Saxony. The exciting sound of 8-part singing, brass and strings will echo around St Michael’s. And the Christmas Story will be re-told to the music of Heinrich Schutz, with guest soloist, Tony Yates, from Topsham. Tickets £7.50 on the door, with fine refreshments.

Plus on Sunday 21st Dec, St Michael’s Choir is delighted to have the opportunity to go Carolling at Killerton House. We will be entertaining visitors to this National Trust property in the Music Room with Carols sacred and secular, old and new, from 2pm to 4pm. Supporters welcome.

Don’t forget the St Michael’s Lecture. On Wednesday 3rd December at 7.30pm, our own David Beadle, who is studying for a PhD on the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) at the Department of Theology and Religion at the University of Exeter, and has done so much to reinvigorate the Lecture Series over the past few years, will talk about “Attitudes to Death and Dying in the Bible and Contemporary Europe.”

As for Services, this year the First Sunday in December is Advent 2, so the 6pm Evening Service will be our beautiful Advent Procession (and not Evensong). Thus:-

Thursday 4th December at 6pm, in place of Thursday Vespers, CBS Mass in commemoration of Nicholas Ferrar (1637) of the Little Gidding Community.

Sunday 7th Dec, Advent II, 10.45am Mass. Setting: Missa de Angelis, Plainsong. Motet: E’en so, Lord Jesus, quickly come, Paul Manz.

Sun 7 Dec at 6pm. St Michael’s candlelit Advent Procession, from Darkness into Light, with Readings, Hymns and Carols, followed by Refreshments.

As well as 5 rousing Advent congregational hymns, music will include Palestrina’s well-known Matin Responsory and the traditional plainsong Advent Antiphons. Also the motet by Ramsey – O Sapientia (O Wisdom), Handel’s chorus – And the Glory of the Lord (from Messiah) and Gibbons’ dancelike Magnificat.

Sunday 14th Dec, Advent III, 10.45am Mass. We get out the Rose vestments for Gaudete Sunday – Rejoice in the Lord always. Setting: Mass in E flat, Bairstow. Motet: This is the record of John, Gibbons.

Thursday 18th Dec, 7:30pm at St Michael’s. Advent 3.571428 as Alex put it! A traditional Service of Nine Lessons & Carols. Hymns, Carols, Bidding Prayer and Readings telling the great story from Adam & Eve to Mary, Joseph and Jesus, the Shepherds and the Magi.

Sunday 21st Dec, Advent IV, 10.45am Mass. Setting: Missa “Dixit Maria”, Hans Leo Hassler. Motet: Hymne a la Vierge, Villette.

Wednesday 24th December, Eve of Christmas, 11.30pm Mass. Preceded by Carols from the Gallery at 11pm. Setting: See website nearer the date. Motet: A babe is born, I wys, Anon.
If someone said on Christmas Eve, “Come; see the oxen kneel.” I should go with him in the gloom,
Hoping it might be so. Thomas Hardy, The Oxen, Christmas Eve 1915.

Thursday 25th December, Christmas Day, N.B. 10.30am Mass. Setting: Missa “O magnum mysterium”, Victoria. Motet: O little one sweet, J S Bach.

Sunday 28th Dec, The Holy Innocents, 10.45am Mass. Setting: Missa L’Hora Passa, Viadana. Motet: The Coventry Carol, Trad. Whether the killing of infants in Bethlehem by King Herod is fact or myth, the Church and the World have abused and hurt the innocent and childlike for too long, and caused women to grieve. Only the just and gentle rule of Jesus Christ can give us hope to do better.

And for your new Diaries:-
Sunday 4th January 2015, Christmas II, 10.45am Mass.
Sunday 4th Jan, 6pm, Choral Evensong and Benediction.
Tuesday 6th Jan, Epiphany, 7.30pm Sung Mass.

The Recital Series is being re-launched in 2015 with a monthly Friday Evening slot. The January Recital on Friday 9th at 7.30pm will feature Eleanor Little and Ralf Ayling-Miller, the winners of our Young Organists’ Competition, so that promises to be a splendid start to the New Year. Admission £5 (£3).

Also, advanced notice that the St Michael’s Lectures for 2015 will commence on Wed 28th Jan at 7.30pm with Dr Nigel Browne giving an Illustrated History of Church Music in Devon, helped by a diverse array of performers.

Wishing you a blessed Advent, a joyful Christmas and a peaceful New Year from all at St Michael’s.

The post December Diary appeared first on St Michael & All Angels.