Choir Travels Back in Time
Gloucester Cathedral Choir being on tour to foreign parts, Dursley Parish Church Choir were invited to sing the services at Gloucester Cathedral on Saturday and Sunday, 19th and 20th April.
As it happened, this was also the weekend of a Through the Ages Live festival centred on Gloucester docks and cathedral. Our first indication of the implications of this festival for us came on arrival at College Green to park, this having been cleared by the Chapter Office in advance. Nigel arrived at 2 o’clock, needing, of course, to set up the organ and rehearse with the choir for a 4 o’clock evensong. He was confronted by encampments of Vikings, Roman soldiers, mediaeval English and Civil War combatants, together with parking limitations which only allowed him to park during evensong itself! Negotiations avoided a diplomatic crisis, though the rest of us found similar difficulties at various times.
Saturday Evensong was duly rehearsed and sung in fitting style. What a privilege it is, and a meaningful spiritual experience, to sing that fantastic service, honed by four hundred years of cumulative worshipping experience, in that place and to make a small contribution to our heritage.
Having been despatched to the St. Mary-de-Lode area to park, Sunday saw an early start with a 9:15 rehearsal for the 10:15 Eucharist. We were welcomed by the presiding Canon, who had obviously been briefed by the Archdeacon, a fan of Dursley from his visits to us, as “one of the best choirs in the Diocese”. We hope that we lived up to his inflated expectations. We very much appreciated the support of a substantial contingent of Dursley Congregation and of Janet.
We enjoyed a light lunch in the Cathedral refectory, ably organised by Maureen Wood, and had time to soak up the festival atmosphere around the cathedral. It has to be said that the experience of meeting authentically clad and equipped Roman soldiers, followed immediately by puritans then Dickensian characters can be disturbing and disorienting. We were particularly entertained by a squad of primary school aged children, dressed in Roman military uniform, being drilled and then marched off by a centurion keeping them in step by chanting “sinistra, dextra…….. “. By contrast, a very authentically clad and behaved crowd of mediaeval pilgrims, headed by cathedral crucifer, acolytes and clergy, made its way in procession into and around the cathedral to the high alter. The pilgrims presented the cathedral with relics of a saint brought back from their pilgrimage, were thanked and blessed in their onward journey. Personally, I found this totally in keeping and rather moving. Like our offering of evensong, it was sincere, meaningful and a valuable link with history and heritage.
It was soon time to rehearse for Sunday Evensong. Some readers may be aware that Nigel has a record of breaking organs on cathedral visits. He will, of course, claim that it would have happened anyway and was nothing to do with him, but it happened again on Sunday and he had to reset the organ to leave out the affected stops.
On leaving the cathedral precincts, homeward bound, our feeling of time travel was confirmed when we realised that a large BBC television crew was arriving and setting up to film a Doctor Who Christmas Special around the Cathedral. A perfect end to an interesting and satisfying weekend. Now, ……… where did I park my Tardis?
John Taylor