The organist librarian

To 10am Morning prayer at the cathedral with magnificent singing from the choir (Anerio, Victoria, Gesualdo). Chat to Deacon Peter and he has commented about Palm Sunday. Invited him to dinner and thanks to him for this lovely image. Joined the Westminster procession led by members of the Passage and Sister Ellen Flynn to the Abbey and at the end met Janet Whiting the chair of Churches Together in Westminster, Lots of people took part. We sat in the front for the 3pm liturgy. The Cardinal gave a wonderful homily on how all are welcomed and accepted by the Church. The choir on stunning form (Bruckner, Victoria, Gesualdo, Casals). The servers led the veneration at the end. Picked up Micky and drove to Coulsdon. The St Luke Passion went really well and the recording is good although the tape recorder is showing signs of its age. About 30 in the congregation. Adrian did a great job at the organ and the augmented choir sounds excellent. All the soloists coped well and Karen's 2 arias ar...

A very busy but fulfilling day. I rehearsed the St Luke Passion with Adrian Adams. It was a beautiful day so I enjoyed the walk up to St John's with a pause at the spot where Mum and Dad's ashes are buried in the Calvary garden. Then to the Centre for Spirituality at the Cathedral for a day led by Fr Paul Fox from Chelmsford. He has worked with disabled children and now with prisoners. He spoke of how our sins can be recycled and transformed by God into something good. This is a powerful message and he spoke too of the humanity of Jesus. To deny this is to deny the Incarnation. I took the opportunity to make my confession - always a difficult thing to do! I made the Stations of the Cross using Fr Cormac Rigby's excellent booklet and I found a quote from Fr Gerard Hughes in this week's Tablet which matched Fr Paul's comments so well. The Lent group followed on with a passage from Philippians as we met for the last time and we welcomed 2 newcomers making a group of 7 ...

And so the greatest week of the year begins! We spent Saturday rehearsing for the Holy Week ceremonies at the cathedral. We began with an excellent talk by Father Slawomir aimed at the youngsters about the Triduum liturgy. After a shared lunch, Deacon Peter gave a fine talk about our role aimed more at the adults. See Peter Simpson's excellent blog http://revprs.blogspot.com for some fine stations of the Cross. There was quite a lot of waiting around and I felt that the day started too early and was too long for some people. Also there was a missed opportunity to go through some general aspects of our serving like processing, acting together on stands and sits, and clarification of some aspects. An obvious point is where to sit on the sanctuary. I find it much better to sit in the stalls as I can hear there and I am not on top of the heating ducts which can be like a sauna at times! The 6 p.m. Palm Sunday Mass is shown on the cathedral blog. See http://westminstercathedral.blogspot...

Sunday to cathedral at 1 p.m. to meet Fr Michael Seed and Brother Volodomir Bezulowsky. Thomas and Madeline Wilson unable to come to dinner after all. Thomas had to do Holy Week booklets at short notice - we've all been there! Monday the Annunciation to the start of Mass and then to Heythrop college for a fine talk by the Archbishop of Joss, Central Nigeria chaired by the Archbishop of Southwark. Fr John O'Toole introduced me to several people notably Claire Blackden, Interfaith officer of CTE. I met Alfred Agius of Westminster Interfaith at last. I will write more about this talk. Tuesday to Selkirk pub, Tooting for Gary Ramsay's farewell. Great to see old colleagues again and when telling about Mum and Dad, I affirmed the family's faith in the resurrection. Wednesday Skype to Ann, to Coulsdon to see Vickie and practise the organ. Lent Group discussed the woman taken in adultery story. Good idea that instead of talking about the Holy Week services we attend we should t...

To the dentist to get a gum shield to stop me grinding my teeth at night! Went through the St Luke Passion with Adrian. To the Hinsley Room for meeting of Lent group. At Mass the men sang a long but beautiful motet by Byrd. To Justice and Peace group meeting with Richard Nesbitt and he too picked up on the Ambassadors for Christ theme we had been discussing at Lent group. This passage reminds me of Fr Anthony Barrett who chose it for his ordination. He really was an ambassador for Christ and is now in the U.S. There was much discussion of the Gospel of John and Liz went to see it at St John's, Upper Norwood. A lovely day - clear but colder. Spoke to Ann briefly on Skype. The J and P group are looking for a banner maker!

I was delighted to see Erik in Battersea Park today. He had triple bypass surgery last year and a hip replacement in November. He is walking with a crutch and making slow progress so eventually we will see him back in the library. I was able to tell him all about the concert on Wednesday. The park is looking lovely at the moment. I swam 34 lengths this morning and at choir practice we discussed the Passion as the church cannot afford to pay a professional organist. Micky was again with us so I gave him a lift to East Croydon and we bought blank tape cassettes at Tesco Purley. Bruce made an excellent job of laying laminate in our hall last week and the edges still need to be done.

The choir rehearsed a lot of Bach's St Luke Passion for Good Friday this evening. There is some doubt that the work is by the great man himself. Mendelssohn apparently thought not. We are doing an edited version in English. It will be at 8 p.m. at St Andrew's Coulsdon.