Choral Evensong: ‘We Begin Again’

WEEK 2 – Sunday 26 January

3rd Sunday of Epiphany

PREACHER: The Rev’d Dr Ellen Clark-King

Responses: Ayleward

Psalm: 33 (p. 383)

Readings: Numbers 9.15–end, 1 Corinthians 7.17–24

Canticles: Purcell in G minor

Anthem: Warlock, Bethlehem Down

Hymn: NEH 466 – Thou whose almighty word

Preacher’s bio

The Rev’d Dr Ellen Clark-King is Dean of King’s College London. She was one of the original cohort of women priests in the Church of England, ordained in Hereford Cathedral as a deacon in 1992 and a priest in 1994. She has worked in parishes in Herefordshire and Newcastle upon Tyne; as a college chaplain in Cambridge; as a tutor in theological colleges in England, Canada and the US; and in the leadership of Christ Church Cathedral Vancouver and Grace Cathedral San Francisco, where she was Vice Dean and Canon for Social Justice. Ellen has a doctorate in feminist spirituality and is the author of two books, Women, the Church, and God and The Path to Your Door, as well as various articles, chapters, and a children’s picture book about a cathedral cat. She is married to a fellow priest and lives in central London.

WEEK 3 – Sunday 2 February

Candlemas

PREACHER: The Rev’d Canon Jack Noble

Introit: Rachmaninov, Bogoroditse Devo

Responses: MacDowall

Psalm: 24 (p. 373)

Readings: Hebrews 2.14–end; Luke 2.22–40

Canticles: Stanford in G

Anthem: Eccard, When to the Temple Mary Went

Hymn: NEH 439 – Praise to the Holiest in the heights

Preacher’s bio

The Reverend Canon Jack Noble is Rector of St Giles’ Cripplegate in the City of London, the medieval parish church in the heart of the Barbican. He was previously School Chaplain and Assistant Priest at St Marylebone Parish Church. Fr Jack served a curacy in a large suburban parish in outer London, having been formed for priesthood at The College of the Resurrection, alongside the monastic Community of the Resurrection in West Yorkshire. In his spare time, Fr Jack enjoys walking all over London, galleries, theatre, eating and drinking!

WEEK 4 – Sunday 9 February

4th Sunday before Lent

PREACHER: The Rev’d Lucy Winkett

Responses: MacDowall

Psalm: 2 (p. 347)

Readings: Wisdom 6.1–21, Colossians 3.1–22

Canticles: Watson in E

Anthem: Howells, Like as the Hart

Hymn: NEH 103 – Praise my soul, the King of heaven

Preacher’s bio

Lucy Winkett is Rector of St James’s Piccadilly in London, a writer, broadcaster and musician. One of the first generation of women to be ordained priest in the 1990s, and the first woman priest to be appointed to St Paul’s Cathedral, she holds degrees in modern history and theology from Cambridge and Birmingham, and was a founding advisor for the public theology thinktank Theos and later Tortoise media. She was the founding Chair of Governors of the first Church of England Academy school in London and co-founder of Leading Women, a national development programme for women clergy. She is a regular contributor to Radio 4’s ‘Thought for the Day’ and is currently leading The Wren Project, a £20m rejuvenation project at St James’s. Her publications include Our Sound is our Wound (Bloomsbury 2010), God’s Song and Music’s Meaning (Routledge 2020) and Reading the Bible with your Feet (Canterbury Press 2021). Her most influential spiritual experiences have been living in a L’Arche community with people with learning disabilities and completing the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises during a month in silence.

WEEK 5 – Sunday 16 February

3rd Sunday before Lent

PREACHER: The Chaplain

Responses: MacDowall

Psalm: 5 (p. 350)

Readings: Wisdom 11.21–12.11, Galatians 4.8–20

Canticles: D. Purcell in E minor

Anthem: Faure, Cantique de Jean Racine

Hymn: NEH 457 – The King of love my Shepherd is

WEEK 6 – Sunday 23 February

2nd Sunday before Lent

PREACHER: The Chaplain

Responses: Tallis

Psalm: Psalm 147.13–end (p. 535)

Readings: Genesis 1.1–2.3, Matthew 6.25–end

Canticles: Tallis, Dorian Service

Anthem: Parry, My Soul, There is a Country

Hymn: NEH 477 – Ye that know the Lord is gracious

WEEK 7 – Sunday 2 March

Sunday next before Lent

PREACHER: The Rev’d Canon Prof Alison Milbank

Responses: Tallis

Psalm: 89.1–18 (p. 459)

Readings: Exodus 3.1–6, John 12.27–36a

Canticles: Sumsion in A

Anthem: Wesley, Wash Me Throughly

Hymn: NEH 333 – All my hope on God is founded

Preacher’s bio

The Rev’d Canon Prof Alison Milbank is Canon Theologian at Southwell Minster and former Professor of Theology and Literature at the University of Nottingham in its Department of Theology and Religious Studies. She is the co-author with Andrew Davison of For the Parish: A Critique of Fresh Expressions (SCM, 2010) and co-editor of Preaching Radical and Orthodox (SCM, 2017). Her most recent academic monograph is God and the Gothic: Religion, Romance and Realism in the English Literary Tradition (Oxford University Press, 2018). She is a member of the steering committee of the “Save the Parish” movement and published on this subject with the inspiring book The Once and Future Parish (SCM, 2023).

WEEK 8 – Sunday 9 March

1st Sunday of Lent

PREACHER: The Rev’d Max Bayliss

Introit: Farrant, Hide Not Thou Thy Face

Responses: Tallis

Psalm: 22 (p. 370)

Readings: Jonah 3, Luke 18.9–14

Canticles: Farrant, Short Service

Anthem: Greene, Lord Let Me Know Mine End

Hymn: NEH 376 – I heard the voice of Jesus say

Preacher’s bio

The Rev’d Max Bayliss is Vicar of Chelsea Old Church in the Diocese of London. Prior to this, he was Chaplain, Fellow and Tutor at Queens’ College, Cambridge, where he also served as Senior Treasurer of the Boat Club and the College Union. He was Honorary Padre to the Cambridge University Officer Training Corps, a university vocations advisor and assistant priest at Little Saint Mary’s. In his master’s degree in early modern history at Oriel, he explored “wit and wordplay in the early modern sermon.” He is currently writing a PhD on the poet, scholar and clergyman John Donne (1573–1631).