A Love Affair with Evensong

Evensong Reflection

Having preached this morning on the ten commandments from Exodus, I think this wonderful service of evensong deserves more of a reflection and less teaching and sermonizing.

My thoughts seemed to coalesce around this service of Evensong, and what it has meant to me and countless more Anglicans over almost five centuries since Thomas Cranmer put together the Book of Common Prayer.

I think it is safe to say evensong has resisted any attempt at rewriting as part of the modern liturgical movement. Unlike the communion and morning prayer services, where it is offered, it continues to offer the traditional language of the Book of Common Prayer, with its power, its poetry and its majesty.

I can’t claim to have much acquaintance with evensong as a youth, although I heard about it from my Dad who always went to church twice on Sunday—for morning mass and then evensong. My grandmother sang in the choir at St. Mary Magdalene’s Church, Toronto, with the great Healey Willan.

When I was in the West Indies for the summer as a youth exchange group member in something called the Anglican Overseas work tour I had my first acquaintance with evensong, as it was a regular part of our Sunday worship on the island of Nevis.

Then at Trinity College,Toronto, when I did my undergraduate work, and at parishes in Calgary and Edmonton, I was an occasional attender.

But what really made me appreciate the beauty and power of this service was the chance to hear choirs like this one sing Evensong almost every night in a different cathedral on a trip to England.

Sadly Evensong is no longer a part of regular worship in many churches. Despite its liturgical strength, and the beauty of the music written for the service by countless composers, and the wonderful evening hymns, evensong has been a casualty of modernity in the church—save for choirs like St. Paul’s which keep it alive on occasions like this.

My love affair with evensong was capped while I was in seminary by the opportunity to sing with a talented group of students less than half my age in the Trinity College Chapel Choir. So every Wednesday in term I was able to sing arrangements of the Nunc Dimmitis, Magnificat, and Preces, along with a new anthem. We rehearsed twice a week. So it was demanding.

As an act of praise and worship Evensong can be sublime at its best. We offer our voices, our prayers to God to give thanks for all our blessings.

Let us give thanks for this treasure of our Anglican worship life, and especially to those like the choir of St. Paul’s which help to keep the flame of Evensong alive.