Sunday

At St Andrew's we sang "Mass for Hilary" by Richard Jones who is now Jo Richards. It worked well to transpose the Sanctus down a tone to G minor. The anthem was "O Lord increase our faith" by Henry Loosemore which echoed today's gospel from Luke. Hymns included "Let all mortal flesh", "Dear Lord and Father of mankind" and "Now thank we all our God" so I ended with Flor Peeters' fine prelude on "Nun Danket". As the Refresh service was on I came home rather than waiting to practise and produced a report on Friday's choir meeting. We had a taste of Morocco for lunch. I hoovered and washed the kitchen floor. Choral evensong last Sunday was from Westminster Abbey and this week from Lichfield featuring Stanford in G and Howells Paean. The Classic FM 15th anniversary concert sounded good despite a boomy echo effect - the BBC does these broadcasts from the Albert Hall with closer miking I think to avoid this. The Verdi and Handel were particularly good and the Carl Jenkins Benedictus was restful. Aled Jones on "The Choir" is interviewing David Hill. It's a shame that David cannot come to next year's organists dinner. I have at last been through my ecumenism case and thrown out a lot of old minutes and agendas. In the course of this I found a charming letter to me from the late Bishop Charles Henderson. A glorious autumn day!