On this the first day of Christmas 2024 we wish you a blessed festive season. Our first Christmas gift to you is of course a partridge in a pear tree, followed by Rev Sue reading “Christmas Magic”, and our choir will sing for you “O Come all ye Faithful”, with the glorious final verse, sung only on Christmas Day … More The 1st Day of Christmas 2024
This is the last day of Advent. The liturgical season of Christmas starts tomorrow. One more sleep. Behind the last virtual door of our parish digital Advent Calendar we have the choir singing the fabulous “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”, Tome and Carol sing “The Christmas Song”, and the choir treats you to some very familiar words set to an equally familiar – yet unexpected – tune … More Digital Advent Calendar 2024: day 24
Two more sleeps! What’s behind today’s virtual door of our digital Advent Calendar? It’s our choir singing our own medley of Christmas Classics, our parish musicians singing “As Dew in Aprille”, and the definitive version of the “Carol of the Bells” … More Digital Advent Calendar 2024: day 23
Three more sleeps! Today behind the virtual door of our digital Advent Calendar we find our parish musicians singing “O Holy Night”, ALM Carol O reads for us “Starburst – a Cosmic Story”, and Carol & Tom sing “A Maiden Most Gentle” … More Digital Advent Calendar 2024: day 22
Four more sleeps! Today’s Digital Advent Calendar gifts for you are Carol and Tom singing “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” and “Let it Snow”, followed by Rev Sue reading “To Wish You Well” … More Digital Advent Calendar 2024: day 21
Five more sleeps! Today’s Digital Advent Calendar gifts are the choir singing “Once in Royal David’s City”, Rev Sue reading Rachel Mann’s reflection “A Villager”, and Carol & Tom singing “King Jesus Hath a Garden” … More Digital Advent Calendar 2024: day 20
There is plenty of research to support many teachers’ experience that singing reinforces memory. That’s why so many CDs exist with tunes for learning times tables, historic dates and the like. Dementia carers also understand well that long after other memories have eroded, songs remain for those living with the condition … More The Lord’s Prayer – various
November is a time for remembering, and this year there is a heightened poignancy to our memories of friends and family we have lost. In September we had a memorial service for those in our parish that had died during the pandemic, and who we had not been able to mourn properly at their funerals … More In Memoriam (Words and Music S Overington 2018)
For me, “La Mer” is a love song to the sea, shore and sky, which is why Tom and I decided to offer it during a service for Creationtide in September 2024. On the appointed day, I had to be elsewhere for family reasons, so our recording of this song is only available in the recorded version of the service that went out on Sunday 15 September … More La Mer – Charles Trenet (1913-2001), trans. Janet Raynor
This article was first published in the September 2021 issue of our parish magazine.
About a year ago, in the autumn of 2020 we had endured a full national lockdown, a summer of somewhat eased restrictions, and were entering a time of less-than-clear tiered restrictions. If memory serves, that meant that worshippers could attend services in person, but had to remain seated throughout, keep a mask on at all times, and absolutely no singing whatsoever … More Thou Visitest the Earth
St Margaret's Church Prestwich 