Sun 29th Oct. 10.45am, All Saints’ Sunday, Fr C, Rev Alison. Victoria, O quam gloriosum.

Thu 2nd Nov, 7.30pm. Fauré Requiem, Sung Mass for All Souls’ Day.

Sun 5th Nov, Advent-4, Trinity XXI, 10.45am Sung Mass. Palestrina.

Sun 5th Nov, 6pm Choral Evensong & Benediction. Dyson in F. Gibbons.

Wed 8th Nov, 7.30pm, Song Recital by Thomas Hobbs with Andrew Millington. £15/£5.

Sun 12th Nov, Remembrance Sunday, 10.45am. Wood in Phrygian mode. For the Fallen, Keitch.

Sun 19th Nov, Advent-2, Trinity XXIII, 10.45am Mass. Nicholson in C. Rejoice in the Lord alway.

Wed 22nd Nov, 7.30pm, John Hughes Memorial Lecture by Dr Ed Skidelsky.

Thu 23rd Nov, 6pm. CBS Mass – St Clement, Bishop of Rome, Martyr (c.100)

Sun 26th Nov, Christ the King, 10.45am Mass. Byrd 4. Mendelssohn.

Sun 3rd Dec, Advent Sunday. 10.45am Sung Mass. 6pm Choral Evensong & Benediction.

Fri 8th Dec, 6.30pm at St David’s Church. Community Christmas Concert. £5.

Sun 10th Dec, 6pm, Advent Procession & Carols.

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

St Michael’s Lecture
Wednesday 22 November, 7.30pm, we welcome Dr Ed Skidelsky from Exeter University’s Sociology & Philosophy Dept to talk on “How can believers talk to unbelievers about God?”, a topic relevant to our recent Deanery Synod study on Discipleship. This is in memory of John Hughes, our Curate 2005-9, who tragically died in 2014 in a car accident while Dean of Jesus College, Cambridge. All welcome.

Choir Music
The main event for the Choir is a liturgical performance of Gabriel Fauré’s beautiful Requiem, in the context of a Requiem Mass for All Souls’ Day on Thursday 2nd November at 7.30pm. Please support this important midweek service. We will also sing Justorum Animae (The souls of the righteous…) by Stanford and the Russian Contakion of the Departed.

Please come to Choral Evensong & Benediction at 6pm on the 5th. Each setting of the Magnificat has its own character and, for me, Dyson in F, with its floating Soprano solo, ATB backing group, laid-back organ accompaniment, plus an incense-laden quire, evokes a sacred jazz club, so relax and enjoy the gently atmospheric music.

With an interim Director of Music and Organist rota, the Choir will keep singing and carry on providing music appropriate to the liturgy.

Review of October’s Concerts

At a couple of weeks’ notice, electro-acoustic musician GRICE and friends moved their Concert from the Chapter House to St Michael’s. Thanks to Jane Bellamy for all the liaison involved. Using all our candle-stands and bringing in uplighting & amplification, St Mike’s was transformed to an atmospheric venue for the 5-piece art-rock band. A very different and enjoyable evening of music.

A fortnight later, Tony Pugh brought Exeter Police & Community Male Voice Choir, with MD David Williams and guest soloist John Burgoyne, to St Michael’s with a toe-tapping programme of songs and arrangements from Frank Sinatra and ‘My Fair Lady’ to John Denver and Les Mis.

Thank you all.

Richard Barnes, 27 Oct 2017.

The post November 2017 at St Michael’s appeared first on St Michael & All Angels.

Wed 2nd Nov, 7.30pm, All Souls’ Day, Sung Requiem Mass. Victoria, Stanford.
Sun 6th Nov, 10.45am, Trinity XXIV, Advent-3. Viadana, Gibbons.
Sun 6th Nov, 6pm, Choral Evensong & Benediction. Stanford, Bainton, Rossini, Fauré.
Wed 9th Nov, 7.30pm, Exeter College Concert. Cello & Piano.
Sun 13th Nov, 10.45am, Remembrance Sunday. Sumsion, Noble.
Sat 19th Nov, 3pm at St David’s Church – Holy Land Pilgrimage Preliminary Meeting.
Sun 20th Nov, 10.45am, Christ the King, Stir-Up, Confirmation. Casciolini, Parker.
Tue 22nd Nov, 6pm. CBS Plainsong Mass – St Cecilia (c.230), Patroness of Musicians.
Sat 26th Nov, 11am – 3pm. An Unusually Good Book Sale.
Sun 27th Nov, 10.45am, Advent Sunday. Wood x2.
Sun 27th Nov, 1pm, at Digger’s Rest, Woodbury Salterton. Advent Lunch.
Wed 30th Nov, 7.30pm, St Michael’s Lecture. Theology & Vegetarianism – Dr Matthew Barton.

Advance Notice:-
Sun 4th Dec. 6pm, Advent Procession – Readings, Candles, Carols, Hymns.
Sun 11th Dec, 4pm, Exeter Chorale Tea-time Concert. “Aqua Musicale”
Sat 17th Dec, late afternoon, Charity Carol Concert given by St Michael’s Choir.

Other Regular Services:-
Tuesdays & Thursdays, 6pm Plainsong Vespers & Meditation.
Wednesdays, 9.30am Morning Prayer, 10am Low Mass.
See the Website & Twitter for Music List & Service details.

Book Sale, Advent Lunch, Lecture & Concert
BOOK_SALE_poster
Please support the “Unusually Good Book Sale” on Sat 26th Nov from 11am-3pm organised with St David’s Creates. As well as books & other media, there will be Piano music from Matthew Wright, Organ demonstration by Nigel Browne, and a guided tour of the Church given by Richard Parker. All-in-all, a day not to miss.

Please contact Chris & Lis Heaven in Church or via Facebook to sign up (by 20th at latest,please) for the St Mike’s Advent Lunch at the Digger’s Rest, Woodbury Salterton, EX5 1PQ. Cost £17.50 or £21.00.

On Wed 30th Nov we conclude our Autumn “isms” lectures with Dr Matthew Barton considering religious and theological aspects of Vegetarianism. Free & all welcome.

We are pleased to host a Concert on Wed 9th Nov in support of the Exeter College Chris Wilson Music Award; Jan Skrdlik, Cello & Petra Besa, Piano, play Saint-Saens, Kodaly, Dvorak. £15.

Please Note also:- Fr Christopher has asked his father-in-law Preb. Alistair Wheeler to organise a parish pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the month after Easter 2018! Alistair is a retired priest from Bath & Wells Diocese, who has led Holy Land pilgrimages over many decades. He will be making a short informal presentation about the Holy Land at St. David’s Church at 3pm on Saturday 19th November.

Choir Music

Our traditional All Souls’ Day Requiem, Wed 2nd Nov at 7.30pm, uses the Missa Pro Defunctis a 4, by Victoria, with Stanford’s motet “Justorum animae”, the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God. All are welcome to this moving Service when the list of names of the Faithful Departed is prayed.

On Sun 6th Nov at 6pm, our Evensong Anthem “And I saw a new heaven” by Edgar Bainton continues the Remembrance-tide theme. The Benediction hymns are Romantic settings by Rossini & Fauré, as Jesus, lifted up, draws us to himself.

For Remembrance Sunday on the 13th the music is the Communion Service in F by Herbert Sumsion (1899-1995), who was at Gloucester Cathedral, Chorister and Organist, for 60 years. From 1917 to 1919 Sumsion served in the Queen’s Westminster Rifles and spent time in the trenches in Flanders. The Motet by Tertius Noble uses a versified form of Wisdom 3.

“Souls of the righteous in the hand of God,
Nor hurt nor torment cometh them anigh;
O holy hope of immortality.
Souls of the righteous in the hand of God,
to eyes of men unwise, they seem to die;
They are at peace, O fairest liberty.
On earth as children chasten’d by Love’s rod,
As gold in furnace tried, so now on high
they shine like stars, a golden galaxy:
Souls of the righteous in the hand of God.”

Please support a special service on 20th Nov – as well as being Stir-up Sunday and Christ the King, we will welcome Bishop Martin Shaw to our Sung Mass to administer the Sacrament of Confirmation on Amy Down. We will sing “Te Deum laudamus”, the great 4th century credal hymn in a setting by the American composer Horatio Parker, learned on our summer visit to Winchester.

On Sun 27th Nov we joyously celebrate the traditional start of the New Liturgical Year, Advent Sunday, with music by Charles Wood, his Mass in F and “O Thou the central Orb”.

“Let Thy bright beams disperse the gloom of sin, Our nature all shall feel eternal day
In fellowship with thee, transforming clay To souls erewhile unclean; now pure within.”

Richard Barnes

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Sunday 1st November at 6pm Evensong and Benediction for All Saints’ Day with more heavenly music. Responses: Radcliffe. Psalm: 148, 150. Office Hymn: 245. Canticles: Dyson in F. Anthem: And I Saw a New Heaven, by Bainton. O salutaris & Tantum Ergo: Liszt.

Monday 2nd November sees our All Souls’ Day Requiem Mass at 7.30pm. This year we sing a full liturgical setting of the Missa Pro Defunctis a 4, written around 1583 by Tomas Luis da Victoria. This beautiful a cappella setting of the Requiem texts alternates Plainsong Cantor with 4-part polyphonic Choir. The Motet is Justorum Animae, by William Byrd, and the service will conclude with the Russian Kontakion for the Departed.

Saturday 7th November at 1.30pm, there will be a Sung Mass at St Michael’s at which Michael Lester will be formally admitted and consecrated as a brother of the Anglican Order of Preachers, becoming a friar of this Dominican order. It would be good if friends from St Michael’s could be there to support Michael in this important step, and to welcome visitors. All are welcome to this service, as always.

8th November is Remembrance Sunday with special music and sermon at our 10.45am Mass, and an Act of Remembrance. The Setting is the Mass in F by Herbert Sumsion (1899-1995), who served at Gloucester Cathedral, Chorister and Organist, for 60 years. From 1917 to 1919 Sumsion was in the Queen’s Westminster Rifles and spent time in the trenches in Flanders. The Anthem “Greater Love hath no man than this” by John Ireland (1879-1962) actually pre-dates the Great War by 2 years.

Sunday 8th November at 7.30pm, St Michael’s is delighted to host the Exeter College Music Academy Concert to launch their Chris Wilson Award. Performing will be internationally renowned Czech musicians Jan Škrdlík on Cello and Petra Besa Pospíšilová on Piano, in a programme including pieces by Boccherini, Beethoven and Saint-Saens. Tickets are £15 (£5 for students); the profits will go towards funding the Award.

Sunday 15th November, Trinity XXIV and 2 before Advent. 10.45am with the beautiful Mass for Four Voices by William Byrd and Cantique de Jean Raçine by Gabriel Fauré.

Tuesday 17th November at 6pm. CBS Mass for the Feast of St Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln (1200). All welcome.

Sunday 22nd November is Stir-up Sunday and Christ the King. 10.45am with the majestic Mass in C & F by Stanford and Above All Praise and All Majesty by Mendelssohn.

Wednesday 25th November at 7.30pm, St Michael’s Lecture. Are we now a Religiously Illiterate Society? asks RE Advisor Graham Langtree.

29th November is Advent Sunday when 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.

Note that 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 in a choral setting of the Magnificat, and is followed by mulled wine and mince pies.

Finally a reminder that, during term-time, a small group is meeting informally in Church to pray & sing Matins at 8.30am Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays & Fridays for half-an-hour or so. All are most welcome to join: to sing or to listen. Vespers is also sung at 6pm on Tuesdays & Thursdays.

Thus St Michael’s is flourishing in many ways, but, as Fr Tom has made clear in his St Francis Sermon and Stewardship Leaflet, to keep our church afloat financially we also need to consider where it comes in our priorities. Donations via the myDonate option on the website are also gratefully received.

Richard Barnes.

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The singing of the hymns chosen by John, “Jerusalem the golden”, “O what their joy and their glory must be” and “Ye watchers and ye holy ones”, full of imagery and doctrine, was tremendous. The choir of nearly 30 sang the Plainsong Missa de profunctis and Propers for the Departed, Stanford’s Beati quorum via integra est, and the Russian Kontakion.

Fr Trevor Jones SSC of St Peter’s Wapping read the Lesson from Wisdom 3 with clarity and insight, and the Gospel was the Resurrection narrative from Mark 16. Solemn Mass was celebrated with simple dignity by Fr David Hastings, assisted by half a dozen servers and Frs Tom Honey and John Henton, the present and former incumbents of this Parish where Canon Thurmer served as Honorary Assistant Priest throughout his 24 years of retirement. There was no Sermon, but a biography was printed (and is linked here).

The Commendation and Committal were prayed with evident emotion by Fr David on behalf of us all. Then John Thurmer’s coffin was borne from the church through the great west doors in clouds of incense into the afternoon sunshine in a blaze of glory. O friends, in gladness let us sing.

Again on John’s instructions, there were copious amounts of sandwiches, cakes and champagne provided, in memory of a great and humble priest who taught and influenced so many. Here we acknowledge the huge debt owed to Canon John Thurmer in maintaining and shaping the worship, intellectual life and hospitality of St Michael’s during many years; his presence is greatly missed.

The words of Gerald Bray, reviewing John Thurmer’s 1987 book “The Son in the Bible and the Church”, seem appropriate. “The [then] Chancellor of Exeter Cathedral is one of that vanishing breed of Anglican churchmen – intellectual without being incomprehensible, conservative without being stuffy, and pastorally-minded without being sentimental. It is a combination which was once the glory of…”

By one of those coincidences, it was a joy to welcome Exeter College Choral Society on Thursday 12th to sing the Requiems by Gabriel Faure and John Rutter. Our thanks to Heloise West, Michael Graham, David Davies and friends for an evening of excellent music-making. St Michael’s is always pleased for performers to make use of our beautiful church.
RB

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May he rest in peace and rise in glory.

The Requiem Funeral for Canon John will take place at St Michael’s at 2.30pm on Monday 9th February, with refreshments and time for conversation afterwards at the church. All are welcome.

A brief appreciation of Canon Thurmer, taken mainly from his own words for his “Friends of St Michael’s” entry.

John Thurmer, born 31 December 1925, died 25 January 2015, was Canon Emeritus of Exeter Cathedral and Honorary Assistant Priest of the Parish of St David’s with St Michael & All Angels, Exeter.

John was at school in Essex (Witham and Chelmsford). He was called up into the army in 1944; in the Royal Engineers his official army trade was Railway Clerk CIII. He was posted to the Middle East (Egypt and Palestine) and spent two years in Jerusalem, where he narrowly escaped terrorist bombing.

After three years at Oxford (Oriel College) and two years at Theological College, he was ordained and served a three year curacy in the modern Newham (outer east London). He lectured at a Theological college for nine years, and came to Exeter in 1964 to be the first Lazenby Chaplain to the University, with some part-time teaching. From 1973 to 1991 he was a residentiary Canon of Exeter Cathedral.

When he retired from the Cathedral, he acquired a house in the parish of St David with St Michael & All Angels. The Vicar left at Easter 1991 and the Archdeacon of Exeter asked him to help the non-stipendiary curate, Father Peter Lee, with parish work during the interregnum. The new Vicar, John Henton, and his successor, Tom Honey, asked him to continue as an honorary assistant priest, and as such he served both churches and congregations for 24 years.

Canon John wrote various articles, reviews and obituaries, and four short books, two of which are still available. A life-long interest of his was the work of Dorothy L. Sayers, who wrote popular detective novels in the 1920′s and 1930′s and whom he knew (or knew of) at Witham, Essex. His books published by the Dorothy L. Sayers Society are Reluctant Evangelist and A Detection of the Trinity.

Firm in belief and generous in spirit, John Thurmer was deeply loved at St Michael’s, Mount Dinham, for his wit and wisdom, his pastoral interest in all, and his lucid and entertaining preaching founded in a deep knowledge of theology and history, lightly worn. Within the church’s website, his liturgical knowledge is enshrined in the St Michael’s Consuetudinary, and his precision of thought in the Glossary.

David Beadle, current Curator of the St Michael’s Lectures, also writes, “As many of you will already be aware, the Reverend Canon John Alfred Thurmer, who ran the lectures along with Connie Cannon for some years, died Sunday morning. He priested in Exeter for a long time, having been Lazenby Chaplain at Exeter University, Canon Chancellor at the Cathedral for 17 years, and in his retirement was at St Michael’s even longer, where he continued to preach his popular sermons without notes until a few weeks ago. I understand that he was very much himself up to his death: deeply kind and caring, with a razor-sharp intellect and inimitable quick wit. Along with Fr John Hughes, he will be very sorely missed.”

There is a tribute to Canon Thurmer in the Exeter Express & Echo.

And an appreciation in Exeter Cathedral News, February 2015, by Heather Morgan.

The Obituary from the Church Times was written by Dr David Grumett.

And in the Telegraph newspaper.

Vespers of the Dead, for Canon Thurmer, were sung at St Michael’s Mount Dinham at 6pm on Tuesday 27th January.

RB (Picture credit: Andrea Burridge Photography, 2010)

The post Canon John Thurmer RIP appeared first on St Michael & All Angels.

Photograph by Jonathan Neale Photography
http://www.jnimages.co.uk/

Saturday 1st November, from 10am until 1.30pm, sees our Coffee Morning and stalls in St Stephen’s Church on the High Street, Exeter. Cakes wanted on the day. Please support this fund-raising and outreach event. Visit the recently restored St Stephen’s, browse and buy, or simply relax and enjoy the refreshments.

Sunday 2nd November, the Calendar this year means we mark All Saints at 10.45am and All Souls at 6pm, with beautiful music at both services.

The weight of music to practise means the Mass setting written when Alex West was Organ Scholar at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, is held over to next quarter. The Motet is still Bainton’s ravishing “And I saw a new heaven” and a Plainsong Sequence will be sung.

In place of “First Sunday Evensong” at 6pm, we will sing Requiem Mass for All Souls using the music of Gabriel Fauré, plus Justorum Animae by Byrd and the Russian Kontakion.

Remembrance Sunday, 9th November, will be marked with special music and sermon during our 10.45am Mass, and the Act of Remembrance at 11am. The Anglican Folk Mass was composed by Martin Shaw at St Mary’s Primrose Hill, London, in 1917. The music of our motet “For the Fallen” was written a couple of years ago by choir member, Graham Keitch.

Tuesday 11th November at 6pm, in place of Vespers, CBS Mass in commemoration of St Martin, Bishop of Tours (397), NOT the Patron Saint of Travel Agents, but as he was born in Hungary, spent much of his childhood in Italy, and lived most of his adult life in France, he is considered a spiritual bridge across Europe. This Roman soldier cut his cloak in half to share with a beggar and eventually renounced the military life to become a Bishop.

Wednesday 12th November at 7.30pm. Recitals @ St Michael’s. The Exeter Singers, directed by Tony Yates, present a varied programme of a cappella music, from Madrigals to Modern! Tickets on the door: £5 (£3 concessions).

Please Note, Wednesday 19th Nov at 7.30pm, the St Michael’s Remembrance Lecture (previously scheduled for 3rd/30th Nov) is given by Suzanne Steele (Official Canadian War Poet; Department of English, University of Exeter) – Bearing Witness to those who Bear Witness.

In St David’s Church at 2pm on Saturday 22nd November there is a Memorial Service for John Hughes. A service of words and music, remembering a dearly-loved former curate of this parish. It is an opportunity for John’s many friends from the congregations at St David’s & St Michael’s, and around the city and Diocese of Exeter to give thanks for John, priest, pastor, scholar and friend, and remember him with love and gratitude.

Stir-up Sunday, 23rd November, the last Sunday before Advent is also a celebration of Christ the King, Jesus as the just ruler over all the Universe. The Anthem by Sir John Stainer is “I saw the Lord, high and lifted up, and his train filled the Temple.”

Advent Sunday, 30th November, at 10.45am Mass, we sing The Litany published by Thomas Cranmer in 1544, the earliest officially authorized vernacular service in English. The 1st candle of the Advent wreath is lit.

So as not to clash with the Cathedral one on Advent Sunday, our own beautiful Advent Procession at St Michael’s is on Sunday 7th December at 6pm. Prayers, Readings, Hymns and Carols illuminate the 7 “Great O” Antiphons, which comprise the Advent Hymn “O come, O come Emmanuel”, and culminate in a choral setting of the Magnificat.

Richard Barnes.

The post November Highlights appeared first on St Michael & All Angels.

Flowers by Stephanie

Thank you to well over 100 in the congregation at St Michael’s representing also St David’s, former clergy colleagues, and John’s family and many friends. Welcome visitors augmented the choir to 30, with Jason, Emily and Fiona as soloists, Neil working the large new pipe organ to great effect and Erika returning to conduct fine performances of the Fauré Requiem and Bainton’s anthem “And I saw a new heaven … And I John saw the holy city”. (We wish Erika well and every blessing as she takes up a teaching post in Cheltenham in September.)

The bell was tolled 35 times by Olive. The beautiful and moving service was presided over by Fr David Hastings with Fr David Walford and out Servers. Fr John Henton’s excellent and personal address will be printed in the September Parish Magazine. But there is space here for Canon John Thurmer’s insightful tribute which was printed in the Service booklet.

“John Mark David Hughes was a Devonian, from Kenton where he is buried. But he rejoiced in his Welsh ancestry and in the dedication of the parish church to St David, his own third name.

This Requiem at St Michael’s recalls not only his memorable ministry here, but also those rather eccentric weekday evening masses of the 1990s, to one of which he came as a schoolboy and reckoned it a turning point in his life.

At his death he was Fellow, Dean and Chaplain of Jesus College Cambridge, where Thomas Cranmer was a Fellow when he was called in 1533 to be Archbishop of Canterbury with momentous results.

John’s chaplaincy at Jesus embraced the whole College, Fellows, undergraduates, college servants and their families, and he had heavy teaching commitments in the Faculty of Divinity. His doctorate thesis on the theology of work was the basis of his book with the teasing title “The End of Work”.

He combined with unforgettable grace the work of the scholar and the loving kindness of the pastor. To each and every one according to need he was son, friend, father and teacher.

Give rest, O Christ, to thy servant with thy Saints where sorrows are no more, neither sighing, but life everlasting.”

It seems that the love of God first touched John, not through a book or an evangelist, but through the warm welcome of those cleaning and arranging flowers when a curious schoolboy made a detour into Kenton Church on his way home.

We now look forward to Friday 15 August, the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, celebrated at St Michael’s with a Sung Mass at 7.30pm. Music will include the Setting Missa “Dixit Maria” by Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612) and the Motet Ave Maria by Jacques Arcadelt (1505-1568).

Please join us; whatever your view of the theology of this Feast, the unique place of Mary in the Christian story of salvation is a cause for celebration.

Also Sunday 17th August, 6.30pm Evensong at St Martin’s in the Cathedral Close, EX1 1EZ.
Canticles: Gibbons Short Service. Anthem: Ave Maria, by Arcadelt.

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The Preacher will be Fr John Henton, who was John’s training priest for his curacy at St David’s & St Michael’s here in Exeter. The Service will include the Requiem by Gabriel Fauré sung in its liturgical context.

There will be drinks and time for conversation afterwards.

St Michael’s other Services and Music for August are listed below.
N.B. No Tuesday or Thursday Vespers during August, but Wednesday Morning Prayer & Said Mass continue.

Last Sunday, there was strong congregational singing, while the holiday-depleted choir of 9, with Alex doubling as conductor and organist, enjoyed singing William Byrd’s sublime 4-part Mass from 1592, and William Sterndale Bennett’s best known anthem, God is a Spirit, from his 1867 Cantata, The Woman of Samaria.

Sunday 3rd August, Trinity VII, 10.45am Mass. NEH:436:295:368
Setting: Anglican Folk Mass, Shaw. Motet: O taste and see, Vaughan-Williams.

Sunday 3rd August. NO Evensong.

Wednesday 6th August, 7.30pm, Requiem Mass in memory of Fr John Hughes. Music will include the Requiem by Gabriel Fauré and the Preacher will be Fr John Henton.

Sunday 10th August, Trinity VIII, 10.45am Mass. NEH:338:353:464
Setting: Mass in the Dorian mode, Tallis. Motet: How beauteous are their feet, Stanford.

Fulda Cathedral – Assumption of Mary
Dom zu Fulda – Mariä Himmelfahrt

Friday 15th August, Feast of the Assumption, 7:30pm Mass. NEH:188ii:161t385:185
Setting: Missa “Dixit Maria”, Hassler. Motet: Ave Maria, Arcadelt.

Sunday 17th August, Trinity IX, 10.45am Mass. NEH:332:324:480
Setting: Mass in F, Sumsion. Motet: O Lord, increase our faith, Loosemore.

Also Sunday 17th August, 6.30pm Evensong at St Martin’s in the Cathedral Close, EX1 1EZ.
Responses: Smith. Psalm 90. Canticles: Gibbons Short Service. Anthem: Ave Maria, by Arcadelt.

Sunday 24th August, St Bartholomew the Apostle, 10.45am Mass. NEH:333:216t433:179t357
Setting: Sarum Mass, Plainsong. Motet: (Give us the wings of faith, Bullock.) Late change: Holy is the true light, Harris.

Sunday 31st August, Trinity XI, 10.45am Mass. NEH:452:408:449
Setting: Mass in A minor, Casciolini. Motet: Christus factus est, Bruckner.

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I travelled to Ely, first stop on our honeymoon many years ago and where I have sung with visiting choirs on several occasions, with a heavy heart last Thursday (10th July) for the Requiem Eucharist for Fr John Hughes.

God opened his heavens to weep in Ely for the Funeral of John Hughes, Priest.

Ely Cathedral nave was filled with many hundreds touched by the full but all-too-short life of Fr John Hughes. The feelings of restrained sadness and the quiet conversations with friends before the service were helped by the sensitive organ music.

The booklet told us that with characteristic thoroughness most of the service had been planned and written down by John himself well in advance; John loved feasts, both sacred and secular, indeed, the best in life was all holy to John, so the Eucharistic Feast, foretaste of the heavenly Banquet, was the right form for his Funeral. God had started his work in him and brought it further than most of us in just half a lifetime; John was very Christlike. We were there to pray for John and that God would complete that life in heaven.

The 30 students of Jesus College Chapel Choir processed in silently, followed by at least 100 clergy representing every facet of humanity, united by black stoles. A bell sounded and the organ and choir began the heartbreakingly beautiful Introit from the Durufle Requiem.

The Altar party and John’s family preceded his coffin, simply adorned with a cross of white flowers, arriving under Ely’s octagonal lantern with the emotional Christe eleison.

Ely Cathedral Lantern and Roof

The Bishop of Ely, Rt Rev Stephen Conway, welcomed all “much too soon” with barely contained emotion and conducted the beautiful service with quiet dignity.

The First Lesson, Isaiah 25:6-9, was least familiar but wonderfully appropriate so I quote it in full, read by a colleague, Prof Janet Soskice.

“And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.
And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations.
He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.
And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

1 Corinthians 15:20-58, the promise of resurrection, was read by John’s cousin, Stephen Gilbert MP, and the Gospel promise that nothing is lost, John 6:37-40, by the unnamed Deacon.

The hymns, well sung by the large congregation, were a pilgrimage of faith:
I heard the voice of Jesus say – Kingsfold,
All people that on earth do dwell – Old 100th,
Guide me O thou great Redeemer – Cwm Rhondda
with a different emotional intensity and closer attention to the words than normal,
Now the green blade riseth from the buried grain – Noel Nouvelet,
Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation – Lobe den Herrn.

The Sermon, by Rev Dr Jeremy Morris, Dean of King’s College Cambridge, avoided any platitudes and was sprinkled with words like disbelief, anger, senseless and too soon, which will have been in many minds.

In an image both Biblical and Dr Whovian, he said that John’s death has torn a hole in the fabric of reality, across many groups; Cambridge colleges, Church of England, wide networks of friends, students and colleagues, and above all for his parents. (This will take time, prayer and work to mend, and will leave scars.)

The loss to theology, where John’s distinctive and creative ideas were already being noticed and admired by many, was immense. (There are too few young catholic theologians with his intellect, rigour and application to major issues in our society, along with such a broad, inclusive view.)

But that is the least of our losses, for John was above all a priest and pastor, a teacher and spiritual guide, a friend and helper, full of hospitality, and a beloved son.

There were a few smiles; were John’s first words to quote from Thomas Aquinas? His great love of people and parties, of feasts and good wine, as in Isaiah. His humour and wit, always with kindness.

Adjectives abounded, friendly, fun, genuine, generous, holy, humble, intelligent, inclusive, open, passionate, thoughtful, wise, broad in his interests and so well read.

Beyond John’s deep personal faith in Jesus Christ, he knew that religion, and Christianity in particular, was social, sociable and about society, focused on the sacramental meal which unites all the communion of saints, living and departed. And John was always giving himself to communities in college, church, friends, society.

Our Prayers, led by Rev Jeremy Caddick, Dean of Emmanuel College, were equally apt and sensitive, remembering the injured survivors of the road accident and all casualties, as well as John’s many circles of influence.

Ely Cathedral window

At the Offertory, according to John’s wishes, the collection was taken to support the church, religious eduction and the poor. Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei, were beautifully chanted by the Choir from the Missa Pro Defunctis.

During Communion, the College Choir, who were close to John’s heart and whose singing was confident, beautiful and sensitive throughout, sang Bainton’s great anthem from Revelation 21 “And I saw a new heaven … And I John saw the holy city” and Croft’s setting of the Burial Sentences from the Book of Common Prayer.

John’s coffin was sprinkled with holy water, censed and prayed over – Go forth upon thy journey, Christian soul – and carried to the west doors of the Cathedral during the Durufle In Paradisum, feelings rising especially for John’s parents. There the plainsong, Salve Regina Mater misericordiae, was sung; then all stood in silence.

The Lamb redeems the sheep

I was reminded that another gift that John was blessed with was a beautiful voice for singing the Liturgy, which he had used as a Curate with us at St Michael’s, intoning the Gospel, and singing the Exsultet for the Easter Vigil.

Meeting friends in the packed Lady Chapel over a cup of tea, we remembered St Michael’s choir tours to Norfolk, including Walsingham, and West Wales, including St David’s, with John as our chaplain equally at home over the kitchen sink, the communal meal and the communion altar.

To the implied question, how God could be so foolish as to take from us decades too early “the brightest and best …”, “the one whom we thought would …” to echo the Road to Emmaus, there is no rational answer, except to believe that John, like Job, would have asked it too, but continued serving the same God and his people whom he loved.

Sed signifer sanctus Michael repraesentet eas in lucem sanctam.
Hostias et preces tibi, Domine, laudis offerimus.

A link to the Church Times Obituary.

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From the website of Jesus College, Cambridge, “The College has been shocked at the death in a car accident of The Rev Dr John Hughes (1997), the Dean of Chapel at the College. The loss of John Hughes is acutely felt as the life of the College was greatly enriched by him. A former undergraduate of the College, he was both an outstanding academic who inspired the students he taught, and a faithful priest and pastor who touched profoundly all those with whom he came into contact. He will be deeply missed.”

“The Funeral Service, at which all are welcome, will be held at 1.30 pm on Thursday 10 July in Ely Cathedral.”

And from Ely Cathedral, “Please note that on Thursday 10 July there will be no visitor access to the Cathedral between 12.45pm and 3.15pm due to a Requiem Eucharist taking place at 1.30pm.”

It has also been announced that there will be a Service and the Burial, which anyone is welcome to attend, at All Saints’ Church, Kenton, Devon, EX6 8LU, on Saturday 12th July at 2pm.

From St David’s Exeter website, “A Requiem Mass for Fr John Hughes will be celebrated at 7.30 pm on Wednesday 6th August at St Michaels Mount Dinham, Exeter. We hope that this will be a fitting tribute to John, a sign of our gratitude for all that he did in our parish and community and a opportunity for us all, together, to remember him before God. All are welcome to attend.”

More moving tributes to the life of John Hughes were given here, “The Cambridge Student”

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