An English Tour

In the middle of August, a group from the choir travelled to Pearson Airport in Toronto – where they met up with a group from St. Paul’s Cathedral, Buffalo – who had been with us last at the Three Cathedrals Choral Festival in May. Together the group flew to England to start a two and a half week tour with week-long singing residencies first at Chichester Cathedral and then at Winchester Cathedral.

We were very warmly welcomed on our first appearance attending the three Sunday services in Chichester – the two cathedrals both have Mattins and Eucharist on a Sunday morning, with a very short turn-around period in between – and during the week were taken into the hearts of the whole cathedral community. It was a testament to the wonderful relationships we had developed during our time in Chichester that the Head Verger, who had a rare Sunday afternoon off, came to Evensong to hear our last service and see us off, wishing us well. Some of the choir were also delighted to have been asked to return to sing at the wedding of one of the other vergers! [Vergers/virgers in English cathedrals, of which there is usually a team of 3 or 4, have a very important role that extends far beyond the ceremonial role in procession – it is really this team that keeps everything in the cathedral running smoothly.]

On the middle Sunday evening, we boarded a bus and drove the 40 minutes to Winchester, past a series of Napoleonic era forts on the white chalk hills of the South Downs, and the Buffalo group checked into The Pilgrims’ School – where the cathedral choristers are educated – and the London group to the University of Winchester residences. Again, we received the warmest of welcomes from the Winchester Cathedral staff; particularly of interest to them was that I had been a virger there for three years in the late 1970s – they threatened to pull me away from choir duties to act as Virger Emeritus!

In both cathedrals, the choir provided the highest standard of singing and received great compliments from both congregation members and the professional cathedral staff. Although a tour such as this is extremely tiring physically and requires great stamina, the choir members always rose to the occasion and we have recorded some memorable moments during the tour, which we will make available in due course.

The choir would particularly like to take the opportunity to express their deep gratitutude to those members of the St. Paul’s community who so kindly donated to support the tour. We also received a grant from the Anglican Foundation towards the tour costs.

Jonathan Scarozza, Organist-Choirmaster of St. Paul’s Cathedral, Buffalo, sends his warmest greetings to all at St. Paul’s; Jonathan and I have been sharing conducting – and singing – duties throughout the tour. We were also blessed to have our two organists, Angus Sinclair and Abigail Rockwood, with us; they both much enjoyed playing the two cathedral organs.
Now safely returned from the tour, the cathedral choir has resumed its normal place at St. Paul’s, leading our weekly worship. Our newest tradition (for the last three years) has been to travel to parishes across the diocese to sing and share Evensong with congregations who request it. It has been an extremely successful programme, with many churches from all corners of the diocese requesting us to visit their parish for this special occasion and we have been privileged to have shared in some memorable parish anniversaries. This fall, we continue this tradition starting a little closer to home:

• at the end of September: St. Peter’s, Dorchester;
• in October: Trinity, Aylmer; St. John the Evangelist, Strathroy; St. Stephen’s, Oldcastle (their Rector, Paul Poolton, was a theological student here);
• in November: St. Bartholomew’s, Sarnia.

If you have time to travel to some of these churches on a Sunday afternoon, we would love to have you join us. Please check the dates and times for these services on St. Paul’s website or on the Facebook link to Music at St. Paul’s. There will also be announcements in the bulletins for each month.

Music for the community will also be a part of the choir’s schedule for the Fall: on Wednesday, 16th October, the choir will again lead the annual St. Peter & St. Paul Service. The next week, on Tuesday, October 22, we will have a Memorial Concert for Alex Clark – Associate Organist of St. Paul’s for 12 years – who died earlier this year; at this concert we will be joined by choirs from Medway School, where Alex taught for many years, and Metropolitan United Church, where he was Director of Music for over 30 years. We hope this concert will raise some seed money for a music scholarship in Alex’s name at Medway School; do come along and enjoy the music while also contributing to a worthy cause.

Also on the choir’s schedule is the first Diocesan Choral Evensong of the season (Sunday, November 10 at 5:00pm) and the annual Carol Services for Advent (Sunday, December 1) and Christmas (Sunday, December 22) – both at 4:00pm – as well as the Christmas services with our very own St. Paul’s Brass.

We do hope to see you at some of our musical events in the next few months and, as always, I wish to express our thanks for the tremendous support and encouragement we receive from the cathedral community throughout the year. There is no doubt that you would be very proud of the way the choir represented and promoted St. Paul’s in England this summer. We hope you will make it to some of our events so that you will experience the same music, beauty and exhilaration that we experienced on tour! Please mark these dates on your calendar. It would be wonderful to see you there.

– Andrew Keegan Mackriell