Learn more about our Oct. 5 Choral Matins Service!

We will mark the last Sunday of the sabbatical period with a service of Choral Matins on October 5.  The Jewish pattern of praying at sunrise formed the basis of the Christian monastic Daily Office, with its prayers or “hours” at seven times in each day. Thomas Cranmer’s revision of the Daily Office for the first English Prayer Book (1549) reduced the number of services to two - one for morning (Matins) and one for evening (Evensong ). In the Second English Prayer Book (1552), the morning service was given its present name, Morning Prayer.  Morning Prayer combines features of the monastic hours of Matins, Lauds, and Prime, and the service was meant to be used by the whole church.  We participate in this tradition with online weekday Morning Prayer.  

Choral Matins is a service of Morning Prayer where the choir sings parts of the service on behalf of the congregation.  For those who have attended one of our Choral Evensongs, the service will be very familiar, the main difference being the replacement of the evening canticles of Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis with Te Deum and Benedictus Dominus Deus. Like Choral Evensong, Choral Matins has been practiced in cathedrals, collegiate chapels, and parish churches for over 450 years.  Although less common in the Episcopal Church since the liturgical renewal of the 20th century and the adoption of the 1979 Prayer Book, for most of this congregation's history, Morning Prayer was the primary service on Sundays, often with the canticles sung by the choir.  On October 5, we will use settings of the morning canticles by Ralph Vaughan Williams along with a contemporary setting of the Preces and Responses by Jessica French and a new Anglican chant for the psalm by one of our own choir members, Eddie Rubeiz.  Please join us for this special service!