St Margaret's Church Prestwich

Music is a key  part of worship at St Margaret’s, and to that end we have a dedicated singing group, Maggie’s Music Makers.

The group sings from their seats in the congregation to support congregational hymn singing (we call it “surround sound”), and when appropriate, seasonal anthems are sung from the Baptistry.

Instrumental musicians are also welcome to offer music before and after services, during communion, or at other times when music would assist with reflective meditation.

We use the Greening communion setting for our main services (Sundays, 9.45am, St Margaret’s), and the sung responses are available for you to listen to here:

Kyrie Gloria Sanctus and BenedictusAcclamationGreat AmenAgnus Dei

Occasionally, our musicians have been pleased to offer an anthem, hymns and instrumental music at weddings and baptisms. We have a wide-ranging repertoire, spanning four centuries! Examples include the Burgon Nunc Dimittis, I Have a Dream I Believe in Angels (ABBA), I Will Follow Him (Stole & Roma) and The Song of the Tree of Life (R Vaughan Williams).

Undaunted by a global pandemic, Maggie’s Music Makers continued to rehearse weekly via Zoom, and recorded many hymns to support our recorded services, as well as a selection of Virtual Choir Videos.

“Like a Rainbow Shining” was written by Will Todd early in the first lockdown of 2020 as a beacon of hope, and reflects the rainbows that many of us had in our windows at that time. It was our first attempt at doing this!

There was even a virtual Songs of Praise concert to round off our Staycation Week during the first 2020 lockdown:

Music featured in our celebration of Harvest and our services for All Souls and Remembrance Day. Throughout the Advent and Christmas seasons of 2020 we offered a daily “Digital Advent Calendar” (available in the blog) of carols, anthems and other music, and the group was pleased to support the parish Service of Nine Lessons and Carols.

To join in with any of our musical offerings at St Margaret’s, please contact our Director of Music, Carol P.