Welcome to the July 2023 edition of the Holy Comforter Music News! We hope to bring you new editions during the program year.

The organ pipes and choir stalls at Lincoln Cathedral, where Holy Comforter’s choir will sing six Choral Evensongs, the third week in July. Lincoln Cathedral has had a choir for more than nine centuries. [Photo courtesy Lincoln Cathedral]

Lincoln Pilgrimage at Last!

We are profoundly grateful for Holy Comforter’s support for our long-planned pilgrimage to an English cathedral where choirs have sung for centuries. Participating singers leave for England on Friday, July 14, after eight hours of final rehearsal the week before.

Please worship with us this Sunday, July 9 when the England choir will sing at the 10:00 a.m. Eucharist. Later, we’ll share our journey via the Choir Pilgrimage blog. Stay tuned!

We ask your continued prayers for David and Kathleen as they remain stateside to deal with her leukemia diagnosis.

Read on to learn more about Choral Evensong, and about choir families.

The History and Meaning of Choral Evensong

A closer look at the liturgy at the heart of Holy Comforter’s musical pilgrimage.

In recent years at Holy Comforter, we have been blessed by a regular schedule of Choral Evensong services. Not everyone in our Episcopal tradition is so fortunate. I interviewed three "cradle Episcopalians" and two who grew up in the Church of England in preparation for this article. None of them had experienced Evensong until they were adults, and then typically in a cathedral setting.

Choral Evensong is almost entirely sung and lasts between 45 and 50 minutes. It features sung prayers, hymns, canticles, and an anthem. David Kelley told me, "Evensong creates a ceremonial space where the music and words resonate off each other and the Holy Spirit permeates the service."

During the English Reformation, when the Church of England split off from the Roman Catholic Church, there was a concentrated effort to give people tools to practice a life of prayer outside monastic communities. In 1549, Bishop Thomas Cramner led a group of scholars who translated services and scripture into English and transformed the seven daily monastic services into a daily office centered on Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer. As Father Jon Strand explained to me, making use of these services "allows lay people and clergy alike to live a life regularly punctuated by prayer and informed by scripture."

Soon after, the great composers of the day began setting Evening Prayer to music, creating Choral Evensong. Thomas Tallis and William Byrd were first. Byrd composed his Choral Evensong between 1563 and 1572, while he was Organist and Master of Choristers at Lincoln Cathedral.

Choral Evensong begins with an organ piece announcing a time of praise. After the opening sung prayers and hymn, we embark on the Old Testament portion of the service, which shows how God prepared the way for Christ. We sing the appointed Psalm using Anglican chant. This is followed by the Old Testament reading.

Next comes the first canticle, the Magnificat, which sets to music the poem Mary gave to us before Jesus was born. The Magnificat serves as the bridge from the Old to the New Testament and an announcement of the coming of Christ. The Magnificat is followed by the New Testament reading and the second canticle, the Nunc Dimittis. This is where we learn about Christ's life on earth and how His Spirit worked in the early disciples. The Nunc Dimittis sets to music Simeon's poem of praise, "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace."

Father Jon told me that "the two canticles in combination give us a vision of the message of the gospel that emphasizes the dignity of every human being." Jon explained that "the Magnificat is a beautiful poem about a person just embarking on a journey to discover the gospel and the Nunc Dimittis is a beautiful poem about someone who comes to rest after a lifelong journey in search of the gospel."

The service concludes with the Creed and additional sung prayers — the versicles, responses, and collects. We end as we began, with the glorious sounds of the organ.

– Henry Griffis

Choir Families: The 'Godsend' of Singing Together

“One generation will commend your works to another” – Psalm 145

Lorica, Ann, Nicola, and George Cassis pictured outside St. Albans Episcopal Church in Annandale. 

Choir members often say the Music Ministry is like family. And for some singers, it’s truly a family affair.

The Cassis are a family of four — one soprano, two altos, and a tenor — whose service in the Holy Comforter choir, combined, is more than 100 years.

George and Ann joined Holy Comforter’s choir in 1991, and their twin daughters just a few years later when they completed college.

“We have always enjoyed singing and are a musical family. Our parents encouraged us to join,” says Nicola. “My original folder number was 43. Paul Patton, one of our former choir directors, used to joke, ‘Nicola, one day you will be as old as your folder!’ Well, that day never came, as my folder number was switched to 18,” Nicola says.

This Italian-American family keeps the choir laughing, especially when Music Minister David Kelley asks “Georgio” for his opinions, in Italian, on how the group sounds.

“There is something profoundly inspiring and meaningful to sing God’s praises together as a family for 28 years,” says Ann.

Karen and Linda Murray at choir practice.

Linda Murray echoes that sentiment as she talks about singing with her daughter, Karen, in the soprano section. Karen was five when her family joined Holy Comforter and later sang in the children’s choir, under Paul Patton, when she was in sixth grade.

Mom Linda joined the adult choir in 1998, having sung in a Catholic church choir for one year in high school, but with no other training.

Karen, for her part, wound up majoring in music in college and singing with the adult choir occasionally in “home-from-college cameos.” Later, joining the choir under then-director Michael Painter seemed natural, she says. “Mostly, I came back and stayed for the people. The members of our choir are the best — accepted me and raised me up to do what I love to do,” Karen says.

She enjoys having dinner before Wednesday night rehearsal with her mom, who can remember Karen singing a lullaby to her newborn brother when she was 26-months old. “I really love singing with Karen because I can feel her love of the music and the people of the choir. It really is quite special,” says Linda.

“It's kind of weird, because we're the only [younger] kid and mom pair in the choir. I make fun of her sometimes when she sings loud. We get to sing the same part, and sometimes we get to sit next to each other.”

Decades further along this path, Nicola Cassis sums it up like this:

“I take great pride in singing with my family. With each passing year, I feel that it’s a godsend that we were all blessed with the gift of song so that we can continue to make beautiful music together. Amen!”

– Text and pictures by Kate Beddall