大象传媒

Radio 4 Opening Announcement: 大象传媒 Radio 4.听 It鈥檚 ten past eight and time to go live to Her Majesty鈥檚 Chapel Royal, St James鈥檚 Palace, London for today鈥檚 Sunday Worship.听 It鈥檚 a service of Choral Mattins for the Feast of Christ the King and it鈥檚 led by the Sub Dean of the Chapel Royal, Prebendary William Scott.听 The preacher is the Dean, who鈥檚 also the Bishop of London, Dr Richard Chartres 鈥� and the service begins with an introit by Orlando Gibbons: 鈥楢lmighty and everlasting God, mercifully look upon our infirmities.鈥�

Music: Almighty and everlasting God (Gibbons)

Sub Dean:
Good morning 鈥� and welcome to Her Majesty鈥檚 Chapel Royal here in St James鈥檚 Palace.听 The Chapel is indeed the cradle of English Church Music with musicians such as Orlando Gibbons, Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, Jeremiah Clarke, George Frederick Handel and Arthur Sullivan all playing a part 鈥� the list is extensive.听 It was from here that Queen Elizabeth the First masterminded the Spanish Armada and where Queen Victoria was married to Prince Albert. In its origins the Chapel Royal was not a building but a group of musicians and clergy who travelled with the Monarch.听听 So it鈥檚 appropriate on this Feast of Christ the King, the last Sunday before the season of Advent begins, to sing our opening hymn: 鈥楻ejoice, the Lord is King!鈥�

Hymn: Rejoice the Lord is King

Sub Dean:
So we honour in our worship Christ as King. We also recall the patron saint of Music St Cecilia whose feast day it was yesterday.
We鈥檒l use part of the Book of Common Prayer which was first used in this Chapel.听 The responses are by Thomas Tomkins who was one of the musicians of the Chapel Royal

Priest. O Lord, open thou our lips.
Answer. And our mouth shall show forth thy praise.
Priest. O God, make speed to save us.
Answer. O Lord, make haste to help us.
Priest.听听 Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
Answer. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Priest. Praise ye the Lord.
Answer. The Lord's Name be praised.

Sub Dean:
The choir sings Psalm 93.

Music: Psalm 93

Reader:
Here beginneth the fifth verse of the twenty third chapter of the book of the Prophet Jeremiah
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE Lord OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But, The Lord liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.

Here endeth the first lesson.

Sub Dean:
The seventeenth century musician, Henry Purcell had a lifelong connection with the Chapel Royal as did his father before him. Buried next to him in Westminster Abbey is a nineteenth and twentieth century composer, Charles Villiers Stanford, whose church compositions are prolific. We hear his Te Deum in B flat written for the Coronation of King Edward VII in 1902

Music: Te Deum听 (Stanford in B flat)

Reader:
Here beginneth the sixteenth verse of the twenty-eighth chapter of the Gospel according to St Matthew.

Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Here endeth the second lesson

Sub Dean:
The hundredth Psalm (Jubilate Deo) by Benjamin Britten was composed for St George's Chapel, Windsor and dedicated to The Duke of Edinburgh

Music: Jubilate in C (Britten)

Creed:
I BELIEVE in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth : 鈥ㄌ�听听 And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord: Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary: Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell; The third day he rose again from the dead: He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty: From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. 鈥ㄌ�听听 I believe in the Holy Ghost: The holy Catholick Church; The Communion of Saints: The Forgiveness of sins: The Resurrection of the body, And the Life everlasting. Amen.

Priest. The Lord be with you. 鈥ㄌ�听听
Answer. And with thy spirit. 鈥ㄌ�听听
Priest. Let us pray. 鈥ㄌ�听听
Lord, have mercy upon us. 鈥ㄌ�听听听听听
Christ, have mercy upon us. 鈥ㄌ�听听
Lord, have mercy upon us.

OUR Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, As it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. Amen.
听
听听听 Priest. O Lord, shew thy mercy upon us. 鈥ㄌ�听听
听听听 Answer. And grant us thy salvation.
听听听 Priest. O Lord, save the Queen.
听听听 Answer. And mercifully hear us when we call upon thee.
听听听 Priest. Endue thy Ministers with righteousness.
听听听 Answer. And make thy chosen people joyful.
听听听 Priest. O Lord, save thy people.
听听听 Answer. And bless thine inheritance.
听听听 Priest. Give peace in our time, O Lord.
听听听 Answer. Because there is none other that fighteth for us, but only thou, O God.
听听听 Priest. O God, make clean our hearts within us.
听听听 Answer. And take not thy Holy Spirit from us.

Eternal Father, 鈥╳hose Son Jesus Christ ascended to the throne of heaven 鈥╰hat he might rule over all things as Lord and King: 鈥╧eep the Church in the unity of the Spirit 鈥╝nd in the bond of peace, 鈥╝nd bring the whole created order to worship at his feet; 鈥╳ho liveth and reigneth with thee, 鈥╥n the unity of the Holy Spirit, 鈥╫ne God, now and for ever. Amen.

O GOD, who art the author of peace and lover of concord, in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life, whose service is perfect freedom: Defend us thy humble servants in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in thy defence, may not fear the power of any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O LORD, our heavenly Father, Almighty and everlasting God, who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day: Defend us in the same with thy mighty power; and grant that this day we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger; but that all our doings may be ordered by thy governance, to do always that is righteous in thy sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
听

The Sermon: The Bishop of London

Let all the world in every corner sing, My God and King. In a few moments, the choir of the Chapel Royal will be singing this anthem with words by the priest/poet George Herbert in a setting by Vaughan Williams.

Music has given wings to our worship since Biblical times. Music and singing can enlarge the spiritual heart and take us directly to a zone of joy. At the same time singing together, with the attentiveness to one another that is involved, can build the unity of the worshipping community.

The Venerable Bede in his History of the English Church recognises the significance of chanting the psalms in embedding Christian culture in our island.

Since then renewal in the life of the church and its worship has often been accompanied by new styles of music and singing. Methodism spread to the accompaniment of the hymns of Charles Wesley and the musical element in contemporary charismatic worship is very significant.

There have been times when music was considered a distraction. During our Civil War in the 17th century organs were smashed and choirs were disbanded. It was the longest hiatus we have suffered to date in English Church Music. At the Restoration in 1660 there was not a chorister in the whole country equipped to lead a treble section.
[In the Chapel Royal at St James鈥檚, the composer Matthew Locke wrote that for 鈥渁bove a year after the opening of His Majestie鈥檚 Chapel the orderers of the music there were necessitated to supply the superior parts of their music with cornets and men鈥檚 feigned voices, there being not one lad for all that time capable of singing his part readily.鈥漖 Some of the best known anthems of the period like Purcell鈥檚 Rejoice in the Lord, reflect this situation.
But as the Scriptures show human beings have always praised God with the sound of music. Shakespeare suspected those who are not moved by music, 鈥淭he man that hath not music in himself, nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils.鈥�

[Archbishop William Temple certainly was a music lover and he particularly enjoyed hearing those who sang at their work just for the joy of it. He was coming down to breakfast one day and was impressed by the cook鈥檚 rendition of Nearer My God to Thee. The cook thanked him for his appreciation but felt obliged to explain, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the hymn I always boil the eggs to, my lord. Three verses for soft, five for hard.鈥漖

In his Ode in honour of St Cecilia the Patron Saint of Music the poet Dryden asserted:-
听听 From harmony, from heavenly harmony
听听 This universal frame began:
听听 From harmony to harmony
听听 Through all the compass of the notes it ran,
听听 The diapason closing full in Man.
听
Dryden wrote this poem in 1687 during the heyday of the restoration of church music. But it was a time when there were people, as there are now. who despised music and sought to confine it to the margins of life, to the leisure sector, as a mere divertissement from serious business.

Today however we live at a time when there is a more holistic view of the world and our part in it. There is increasing recognition of the inadequacy of the kind of knowledge which is based solely on measuring, weighing and mapping; on numbers divorced from harmonic sequences.

Reducing the science of nature to pure quantity may yield some successes in dominating the globe but the consequences of the denial of an intimate harmonic relationship between human beings and the creation of which they are a part is becoming daily more and more visible.

St Cecilia sang while she was being martyred. She stands for the truth that we were created not for any merely utilitarian end but to sing and celebrate the divine glory. We are created to participate in every fibre of our being in the divine harmony. Singing and making music together is a community builder and a soul builder. As we become more aware of other participants in the music, so we experience more profoundly the music of God.

Music and the quality of singing provide an index of the culture and spiritual temperature of an age. Our thanks this morning goes to the music makers to whom the poet Robert Browning paid this tribute in his poem Abt Vogler:-

Sorrow is hard to bear and doubt is slow to clear
Each sufferer says his say, his scheme of the weal and woe
But God has a few of us whom he whispers in the ear听
The rest may reason and welcome; 鈥榯is we musicians know.

[Sub Dean
The Anthem 鈥� Let all the world in every corner sing is a setting of words by George Herbert and music by Vaughan Williams who was honoured by the sovereign by being made a member of the Order of Merit.]

Music: Let all the world (Vaughan Williams)

Sub Dean:
Let us pray for Her Majesty The Queen
听
Almighty God, the foundation of all goodness, we humbly beseech thee to behold thy servant, Queen Elizabeth. Endue her with thy Holy Spirit, enrich her with thy heavenly grace prosper her with all happiness; and bring her to thine everlasting kingdom, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
听
Let us pray for the Royal Family
听
Almighty God, Father of all mercies and giver of all grace, we ask your blessing on the members of the Royal family as they fulfil their service among us; that both by their word and example our nation and commonwealth may be strengthened in the love of righteousness and freedom, and preserved in unity and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
听
Let us pray for the victims of violence and terrorism
听
Lord and heavenly Father may thy blessing and comfort be with all who suffer violence, at home, at war, through terrorism and fanaticism and grant that the peoples of this world may be led into the way of thy peace, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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THE grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all evermore.听 Amen.

Hymn: Crown him with many crowns (Diademata)

Blessing (Bishop of London)听听听听

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