Palm Sunday

Mosaic from Palermo
Just back from Coulsdon where everything went really well. John brought his flute and we started in the hall with Wilson's Hosanna to the Son of David. because of the atrocious weather we processed through the corridor to the church with the flute giving great support to "All glory Laud and honour". I insisted on this being in B flat so it did not go too high. We sang Bairstow in E flat which is such a fine setting - pity the Benedictus got left out - what better day to sing Hosannas! The Passion was read by lots of readers. Vicky preached on Holy Week itself. At communion we sang "Is it nothing to you?" by Ouseley with a real sense of the sorrow in the music. We also had verse 1 of "O sacred head" . After "Ride on" I played "Tears of grief" from Bach's St Matthew Passion. After coffee I practised - odd to be playing Easter music today!
At the cathedral Thomas sang the Passion with Deacon Ed and one of the lay clerks. George Malcolm and Byrd motets. Liz was mitre for the Cardinal who chose the red mitre!
I was very struck by Jesus's reply to Judas's kiss - "My friend" he calls him. Would I call someone who I knew was betraying me a friend. In "My song is love unknown" (all the verses of course!) we sang of "This is my friend, my friend indeed". Maybe we need to think more about friendship as St Anselm did. Our society so often assumes that friends are involved in other ways particularly sexual which is very sad. The habit of exposing one's private life on Facebook and My Space and You tube doesn't help! Another thought from the Passion is the section at the end where the chief priests ask for the tomb to be sealed in case the body is taken and a claim made that Jesus is risen. The Quran says that someone else died and Jesus went to heaven - an extraordinary claim.