Society of Saint Gregory

I don't agree with the general thrust of his discussion but I think there are two valuable points that he raises: - the first on the transference of important feasts days like the Epiphany and the Ascension. I think we lose something of the liturgical richness by simply transferring them to the near...

I think we need to be a bit careful about being tempted to equate hymn-singing with liturgical participation. I don’t think this is the intention of this thread: londonchurchman clearly enjoys singing hymns, and so do I. But hymns are at best secondary to the texts of the liturgy itself, especially...

But I don't want to dwell on the negatives: So far one person has been kind enough to PM me with a church on the London borders where good congregational singing can be found. There must surely be others in Central or North London's parishes that are known by reputation if not through personal expe...

If anyone has any specific suggestions about a good church to attend which has good congregational singing I would be very grateful to hear. I know nothing about London, but can sympathise with your explorations: when I realised that I would be staying in a certain west-of-Ireland city for longer t...

Quite apart from the international composition of the congregation, which has already been mentioned, it's worth remembering that Westminster Cathedral for many years was notorious for having a policy of discouraging congregational singing.* That legacy still lives on to a certain extent. In any ca...

The parish where I grew up and played for a number of years used to sing really quite well and still do when I go back to visit. The parish where I play now are far more quiet despite trying to give them a mixture of traditional and modern, well-known and new, and having a small choir to lead thing...

Somebody mentioned to me Thomas Day's book "Why Catholics can't Sing" and I managed to order a copy through amazon. Whist he was an American Catholic describing the experience in the States, he contends that English speaking Catholics tend now not to sing. I just thought I would throw thi...

St Andrew's, Tenterden, Kent TN30 6LL

Thanks - I think it's always a good sign when a parish has a specific page dedicated to music and explains what music can be expected at the various masses. This is something which is nit as common as it should be.

There are a number of dynamics at work: ⋅  The regular attendance of catholics at mass is underpinned by the Sunday obligation, which does change the cross-section of congregations ⋅  Catholics who like to sing will (where there is a choice of parishes) tend towards parishes whi...

I just wanted to say that while the detail of these posts is interesting, I am talking about a much more fundamental lack of particpation. What I see around me in the Catholic chuches I have visited is people not even bothering to pick up the hymnal, and when people do have the hymnal open not reall...

A good first port of call would be Holy Trinity Dockhead (see http://www.dockhead.com for Mass times, map, etc), where the PP is Alan McLean and the musician is Mag Shepherd. When visitors to London ask me where they can get a good parish liturgy (as opposed to the spiritual concert with appended l...

Thank you for these very interesting replies. If anyone has any specific suggestions about a good church to attend which has good congregational singing I would be very grateful to hear. I am in North West London but very mobile and willing to travel anywhere in North London and to central London (f...

Sorry, I meant to add, in response to your question, that I would not want to discourage anyone from singing - however bad they might be. I'd much rather ask the majority of the congregation why they aren't singing as this seems to be the main problem.

Thanks for your welcome, Peter. To be honest, I was expecting that the situation might be as you describe and would vary from church to church, and from mass to mass - what surprised me completely, was that at every church I visited (I am talking about 15 different churches in London!) the situation...

I have just joined the forum and wanted to ask a question about the lack of congregational engagement in hymns. I have recently returned to the UK from Germany, and was shocked by how poor congregational hymn singing in London (and to a lesser extent engagement with the ordinary of the mass) has bec...