Choral Evensong with His Excellency Most Rev. Steven J. Lopes

What is Choral Evensong?

By Dr. Clint Brand

In a recent book, Eamon Duffy, the British Catholic historian writes, "Anglican Choral Evensong is to my mind the greatest liturgical achievement of the Reformation, a perfect blend of noble prayer in memorable language, interspersed with the reading of two extended passages of Scripture, all set to glorious music." Choral Evensong represents a living tradition of engaged devotion. It is a continuum of musical prayer teeming with quicksilver vitality and artistic richness, serving as an instrument of grace consecrated to the sanctification of time and all the souls gathered through song and prayer into the body of the Church.

Mediated through the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, resonant throughout the English-speaking world, and restored to the Catholic Church in the Ordinariate usage of the Roman Rite, the tradition of Evensong condenses and distils the legacy of the ancient Jewish synagogue, the Divine Office of the early church, the Benedictine canonical hours and the medieval brev­iaries, all combined with the sober biblical piety and rich hymnody of Protestant devotion.