4 Nov 2012
Saturday on my walkabout, I passed a sign that said "Choral Mass first Sunday of each month, 10 am. Other Sundays, Spoken Mass." Since the next day was the first Sunday, I thought it would be worth investigating. The next morning, 5 minutes before the service, when I was the only person in the congregation under the age of 65, I wondered if I was mistaken.
Turns out many younger folks (and some not quite as old folks) were in the choir. I caught glimpses of them out the side door as they prepared to enter the sanctuary. The men were in white robes, the women in blue robes with lace collars - kind of goofy looking Elizabethan collars. Then the organ fired up with "For all the saints," the choir began to sing, and I started to think it might be worth the goofy collars to sing in the choir.
The choir processed around the fairly tiny chapel and folks from the congregation stepped out of their seats to join in the parade. Plus the organ was HUGE and LOUD and I got to sing all the verses, in harmony, at the top of my lungs. Fantastic. I had totally forgotten it was All Saints, but it was another perfect welcome to Melbourne - the assisting minister even mentioned all the victims of Sandy and the upcoming US presidential elections in the prayers of the people. We sang several other of my all time favorite hymns, and enjoyed a few fabulous offerings by the choir. I'm sure by the end of the service folks were staring at me, because I was grinning like an idiot.To top it off, on the page next to the last hymn we sang in the service was a hymn titled "For Absent Friends" - just in case I'd missed the "you're in the right place for the moment" message.
Turns out the folks I worshipped with are Episcopal, and it's not their building. The University of Melbourne has several colleges - I'm staying at University College, and this chapel is in the Trinity College section of campus, and so it belongs to the university. These folks just meet there for morning and evening services on Sundays. And have tea, coffee and snacks after in the courtyard. Evensong is always sung. If you are planning to visit, and love choral mass (Ted and Abby) you should plan to be here for the first Sunday of a month. And perhaps it will be a beautiful sunny day, like this one was. Thanks be to God. :)
HI AMY!!
ReplyDeleteSo good to hear what you're up to and that all is going well so far. I can't wait to read more...
Deb
Fun post, glad you found a good singing congregation!
ReplyDeleteWe used to sing the first and last verse of that hymn during family devotions growing up. Only difference was instead of "now far distant" we sang "in thy mercy". I think it was an Oesch thing though, not a Wuerffel thing?
Glad you're there safely.