Society of Saint Gregory

Well, I always have a recessional hymn, but often drop either the offertory or communion hymns. If there is no offertory hymn my PP likes incidental music until the Orate Fratres, so my improvisational skills get exercised (Mirror, signal, music). Communion is more varied: sometimes a processional c...

Heating rarely helps and usually makes things worse - it causes the relative humidity to fall.

Mmm, can OpenOffice take an EPS import? My first attempts I generated a png from Lilypond, but you have to decide whether to have the thing legible or with a monstrously big file. Most modern printers have pretty fine resolutions, and you end up able to see the pixelation from the png. I got round i...

Indeed, in my parents' parish (Sevenoaks) there is a Polish priest living there in an annex of the presbytery, placed there by one of the Polish bishops specifically to minister to the needs of the Polish faithful around West Kent. As for around Rugby, there was already a Polish mass when I arrived ...

In my parish, the PP will often insist I go over a psalm reponse before Mass even if it's one the people know well – it's the reverse of the warm-up comic – my job is quieten (funny word!) the assembly who are catching up on the gossip, selling raffle tickets, greeting people who've been away i...

For my money having the choir director being able to give clear signals inviting the participation of the assembly, reassuring the people that they're encouraged to sing at a particular point and occasionally giving some indication of how the tune goes, is one of the vital ingredients in a successf...

A pipe organ is most complicated and expensive item in a church building. Fortunately, with the exception of one or two items, it is a large machine which usually fails a little bit at a time. Hence, like a steam locomotive, it can still be mostly fit for purpose even when quite a few components ar...

I was at an occasion recently where we used the Superman grace. With actions, whatever your age.

organist wrote:Isn't it wonderful how "Wachet auf" and "Lo he comes" immediately evoke Advent.

Oddly, "Lo he comes" isn't in the version of Celebration Hymnal that we use (the purple one). The words are long out of copyright, so I should produce a congregation sheet for next year.

My understanding, from a snippet I caught, is that they plan to put it on live at 4pm on Sundays.

Of course, many of the potential audience for Choral Evensong may be out at, er, evensong on a Sunday.

Who should now apologise to the Egyptian government for drowning Pharoah's army? Would it be the Vatican, or the state of Israel? Or will it be all due to British Imperialism, and fall to Mr Blair?

Campion Day (as we called it) brings back fond(ish) memories of the annual cross country run for the whole school, in commemoration, one assumes, of the sufferings Campion himself underwent as he met with martyrdom.M. Being educated by the J's, my school house was Campion. As our prep school was &q...

Is starting Advent on the first Sunday a peculiarly Catholic practice, or was Penny Gore wrong when she played Advent music this morning "because it's the first day of Advent"? BTW, they have a service of Advent carols, motets and readings this Sunday at 4pm - possibly the start of their s...

docmattc wrote:Has it happened yet? If so, who was the luck contributor and what do they win?

The site's front page says we're on 4015 (well, 4016 after this one - well, 4017 after the thread I'm about to start).

Which brings us neatly to "One Hymn to the tune of another" - not as complicated as it sounds. I read somewhere that Oh Really, Ah was originally written for "Jerusalem the golden", hence the name. Last Christmas my choir sang "O little town" to the melody "Bethleh...