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

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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.

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While May had all the Festivals (Rogation, Ascension, Pride, Pentecost, Trinity & Corpus Christi), June still has plenty to offer, so we hope to see you at St Michael’s.

At 6pm each Tuesday and Thursday, there is Plainsong Vespers & Meditation, though on Thurs 9 June there will be a CBS Mass for St Columba of Iona.

Celebrate Corpus Christi with us on Thurs 26 May at 7.30pm. Sung Mass with Procession, witnessing to the presence of God’s Love in the world.

Likewise Friday 27 May at 7.30pm, when we were privileged to welcome Professor Nicholas Orme, to distil his extensive knowledge of Church History in a lecture in memory of Canon John Thurmer, entitled “A Brief History of England’s Cathedrals.” An excellent evening with 85 people hearing and discussing an enthralling overview of 2 millennia in 1 hour – Thank you.

Sun 29 May Trinity I, 10.45am. Mass for 3 voices, by William Byrd. Motet: Si iniquitates observaveris, by Samuel Wesley.

Sun 5 June Trinity II, 10.45am. Missa l’Hora Passa, by Viadana. Motet: Litany to the Holy Spirit, by Hurford; Sweet Spirit, comfort me, by Herrick.

June 5th is also the Feast Day of St Boniface, a true European, born c.675 in Crediton, studied in Exeter, worked as missionary and bishop in what is now northern Germany, martyred in 754 at Dokkum in the Netherlands, and buried in Fulda. In Aug 2012 St Michael’s Choir visited and sang in the splendid baroque cathedral which now covers his shrine.

Sun 5 June 6pm Evensong & Benediction – Sumsion Responses, Brewer in D Canticles; both Organists of Gloucester Cathedral. Psalm 44. Evening Hymn by Balfour Gardiner.

Thurs 9 June 6pm, CBS Mass for St Columba of Iona. All welcome.

Thurs 9 June at 7.30pm in Exeter Cathedral. If you missed Bp Sarah Mullally’s St Michael’s Lecture “Should the Church be involved in the Health of our Communities?”, you can hear her address the same subject.

Sat 11 June, kicking off at 7pm, UPLOAD at Exeter Cathedral, for young people 11-21 (revised down) who don’t do church – live bands, skate park, big screen gaming, sumo wrestling, giant inflatables and prayer!

Sun 12 June Trinity III, Music Sunday 10.45am. Introit: Cantate Domino, by Pitoni. Setting: Missa Sancti Nicolai, Mass in G major by F J Haydn. Motet: 8-part Jubilate Deo (Psalm 100) by Giovanni Gabrieli.

12th – 14th June is also my best guess for when the 2 young Peregrine chicks should be fledging from the nestbox. Once they are competent flyers they will likely continue to roost in the box for a couple of weeks further.

Thurs 16th – St Richard of Chichester, 1253, famous for the Prayer – “Thanks be to Thee, my Lord Jesus Christ, For all the benefits Thou hast given me, For all the pains and insults Thou hast borne for me. O most merciful Redeemer, friend and brother, May I know Thee more clearly, Love Thee more dearly, Follow Thee more nearly” – better known in the 1970s as the song “Day by day” from the Stephen Schwartz musical Godspell.

Sun 19 June Trinity IV, 10.45am. Missa Aeterna Christi Munera. Motet: Sicut Cervus, both by Palestrina.

Sun 19 June at 4pm, Afternoon Tea and Concert with The Exeter Chorale. Please join us for a generous helping of mainly Victorian vocal and organ music, served with home-made cakes, tea or coffee. All for £8 (£5 for Mount Dinham residents and students, children free). The programme will feature a Te Deum composed by HRH Prince Albert, Ave Maria by Mendelssohn, The Lost Chord, and much more!

Wed 22 June 7.30pm St Michael’s Lectures are delighted to welcome back Dr Karen O’Donnell, former research student here, now Research Fellow at Durham University working in Digital Theology and ministry training, to talk on the topic “Help for Heroes: PTSD, Warrior Recovery and the Church.”

Sun 26 June Trinity V, 10.45am. Mass in C&F. Motet: Beati Quorum Via, both by C V Stanford.

CANCELLED Apologies, this Concert has now been CANCELLED; Mon 27 June 7.30pm at St Michael’s, The Fisher Consort.

Mon 27 Jun is the 152nd anniversary of the death of John Dinham, tea merchant, philanthropist and developer of Mt Dinham.

Wed 29 June is the 2nd anniversary of the death of Revd Dr John Hughes, much-loved former Curate of this Parish. Matins at 9.30 and Low Mass at 10am will be said on this the Feast of Saints Peter & Paul. Blogs related to tragically early death of John Hughes may be found via Fr John Hughes RIP

Sunday 3 July, 10.45am Mass, plus at 6pm we will have our normal 1st Sunday Evensong & Benediction with a cappella music by Thomas Tallis and William Mundy.

Richard Barnes.

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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.

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We are an Exeter-based octet and we have been meeting and performing since 2010. We like to sing mostly in eight parts and choose interesting and unusual programmes of music, mostly drawing from contemporary and Renaissance, often church music. For example, we have performed Howells Requiem, a Rheinberger mass, Rachmaninov’s Vespers, a set of Italian madrigals early and modern…

Our rehearsals are on Thursdays 5.15-7pm at Kay House Duryard, off Lower Argyll Road, near St Davids station. We perform on average once per term. We have just started meeting again after the summer, working on a programme of French music, early and modern. We take our music seriously but we also laugh a lot.

You will need to be a good sightreader, be able to hold your own part and blend well, be available for Thursday rehearsals, and own a purple tie.

If you are interested, contact Ben on 07532 053458 or email thestarlingoctet@gmail.com . You will be invited to come along to our next rehearsal for a very informal audition.

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