The organist librarian

A day of deep emotions. To the cathedral for 10 a.m. Morning Prayer. The choir sang Victoria Lamentations as at Tenebrae last week and we knelt for the first part of Anerio "Christus factus est". We used to sing this at Addiscombe and this day always bring back painful and joyful memories especially during the Reproaches. A great joy to see Father Mark back and singing as well as ever. To Marks for a coffee with Francis and Deacon Peter whose blog on the Stations has been an inspiration in these last days of what has been by and large a good Lent. At least I stuck to no alcohol and read "The Imitation of Christ". The Lent group "Who is my neighbour?" took 5 weeks to really get to the point of welcoming migrants in church. "Understanding Islam" will have a long term effect I know. Bishop John Arnold spoke in his homily about the bewilderment and shame of the disciples on this day. Got the bus to outside Methodist Central Hall where we joined the p...

I can just be seen behind the crucifer a first year at the seminary. 40 lengths and saw Andrew. I put in a comment about the fact that the pool is open right through the Easter weekend - do the staff get a break and do the Christian staff get it off. Also the shower in gents change room is stuck again wasting water and heat. The Readingfutures training course and it was great to see old friends like Carol and Ruth. They loved my picture gallery in the staff room including me with Princess Anne! To the Chrism Mass for 12 noon. A most impressive procession and Liz and I sat together behind the priests as we were consecration torches. Saw Fr Allen, Fr Aidan, Fr Jim from Chiswick and Fr Richard. Fr Mark was there and the seminary students. Lots of Macmillan but did not much like the Gloria from the Westminster Mass. Hymns were "My song is love unknown" O godhead hid and The royal banners with one about the oils to "Eisenach". Hard to hear Cardinal's excellent sermo...

Liz was due to be cantor at 5.30 mass but had train problems and when she tried to drive up she got stuck in traffic. I listened to evensong from Windsor which included My song is love unknown and Bach's Passacaglia played by Roger Judd. I also did the April music list. Earlier I was watching "The hidden face of Jesus" which claimed links with other religions. To St John's Upper Norwood for service of meditation on the Passion. John Linley was there with Bob Atkinson. We sang Blow Salvator mundi, Greene Lord let me know mine end, Crux Fidelis by King John of Portugal and 3 negro spirituals including 2 arranged by Tippett. Cathy sang sharp as usual. It was hard to hear Beverley at times. The service began with Vexilla regis. Kit plays the hymns far too loudly. 11 in the congregation. Adrian's Mum is sinking fast - Joy said it would not be long now. Watched part 1 of The Passion on TV - bit hard to follow at times but I was a bit tired.

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 la...

Saturday day off but to the library for the reading group session in the adult. 13 came and met Michael Mail who I had met at a police meeting. He speaks really well and he explained how he came to writing late when he won an Edinburgh short-story competition. He is a Scottish Jew living in North London and is now a full-time writer. "Exposure" is about a Jewish girl who comes down from Leeds to the East End to study photography. One of the group felt that the book was more like non-fiction whereas others loved it and found they wanted to know the ending. Michael pointed out that tragedy was hinted at from the beginning. Suzy gets to know a Jewish community in the East End and the novel plays on the use of a camera as a shield to intrude into people's lives. The lecturer Terry and the other students are well-drawn as are the Jewish characters. There is also an interplay between the nominal faith of Suzy's separated parents and Suzy's rediscovery of her faith thr...

Another magnificent celebration at 12 noon today! The privilege of being at the centre of such an event which is so well planned is truly amazing and very humbling. Liz and I were consecration candles and I feel much more relaxed about doing this now. It was great to see so many people there and of course all the priests and seminarians including Edward. Deacon Richard read the gospel. The choir excelled in Elgar's "The spirit of the Lord" and Colin Mawby's "Ave verum" and a splendid Monteverdi setting. There were wonderful hymns "My song is love unknown" "O Godhead hid" and "The royal banners forward go". Note the white veil on the cross and the magnificent oils. More pictures on the Westminster diocesan site. Liz was able to stay for lunch but I had to return to work.

I somehow omitted to mention going to hear Sir Arthur Somervell's Passion on Saturday March 24 at the beautiful St Anne's church, Vauxhall. It would be best to draw a veil over the efforts of the choir especially the sopranos but the soloists were good and the fine organ was sensitively played. The organ was preserved by Bishops and it was good to meet Manuel, the resident organist and see the console beforehand. It is a Walker from 1911. It was a shame that "My song is love unknown" was interpolated as this fine Ireland tune rather showed up Somervell but the real shock was to sing "Praise to the holiest" to the Dykes tune at the end instead of the splendid soaring Somervell tune which is the one bit of the work I know! The organist was Christopher Cromar, the conductor Noel Charles and the soloists Melanie Lodge, William Molesworth and Tim Storey.

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...