This article was written for the November 2025 issue of our parish magazine. We began learning this 8-part song in Manchester Chorale rehearsals back in the summer of 2019. For very obvious reasons, we didn’t get to perform it until June 2022. The Chorale was on a concert tour to Kilkenny in Ireland, and I … More Listen to the Lambs – Robert Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943)
This article was written for the November 2022 issue of our parish magazine. Sarah Quartel is a Canadian composer and educator, known for her fresh and exciting approach to choral music, and I was first introduced to her work in August 2021. I was at the Sing for Pleasure summer school for choral conductors, where … More I Remember (Sarah Quartel)
This month’s letter comes from Rev Steve: This season of Remembrance begins with the memory of a month that will resonate for many years. When I first heard of the terrible attack on Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation on 2nd October, Yom Kippur, I knew I had to get there as quick as I could. But … More November Letter to the Parish
This month’s letter to the parish is from Rev Steve: This month sees the 40th anniversary of the fire that re-shaped the life of St Margaret’s. It happened on 21st February 1985. The lessons learnt in times of adversity stay with us throughout our lives. So many of our scriptures are framed through the experience … More February Letter to the Parish
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)
Good morning and welcome to our service of Holy Communion for Remembrance Sunday 2023, which concludes with our Act of Remembrance. Rev Sue will preach and preside. We begin with the hymn “God is my strength and refuge”: The full service was livestreamed here, and begins at 6’40”: https://fb.watch/ogtTjV-flQ/ The readings are: Wisdom 6:12-16 I … More Remembrance Sunday 2023
Sarah Quartel is a Canadian composer and educator, known for her fresh and exciting approach to choral music, and I was first introduced to her work in August 2021. I was at the Sing for Pleasure summer school for choral conductors, where every conductor is required to sing in choirs for other choral conductors. We sing a huge amount of music through the 10-day course. A group of six peers had been assigned pieces by Quartel for upper voices (soprano and alto), and I was in their choir … More I Remember – Sara Quartel (1982-present)
As many readers know, for the past two years I have been a regular attendee at Sing for Pleasure choral singing leadership and conducting courses. Last November, this was my “study” piece at such a weekend. I knew immediately that I would have to sing it during the Remembrance Sunday service at St Margaret’s later that month … More I Believe (S Overington)
The Act of Remembrance I’m sure many of us know was actually begun in 1919 by King George V to recall the end of the first World War hostilities, which formally ended at the 11th hour, on the 11th day of the 11th Month in 1918, when the Peace Treaty was signed, although the war officially ended with the Treaty of Versailles on 28TH June, 1919 … More Remembrance Sunday Sermon
Good morning and welcome to our service of Holy Communion for Remembrance Sunday 2022. Rev Sue will preside, Reader Christine will preach, and the act of remembrance will be at the end, near to 11:00am … More Remembrance Sunday 2022
St Margaret's Church Prestwich 