Sunday 22 June 2025, 10:00
St Michael and All Angels Church
At 10am in St Michael & All Angels Church on Sunday June 23rd, we hold our Festival Mass, celebrating 150 years of Bedford Park. Setting: Beethoven in C Major Op86
Preacher: The Vicar, Fr Kevin Morris
Reading:
Hymns: .
Organist:
Celebrating composer Cecilia McDowall of Bedford Park
Cecilia's anthem Prayer, a setting of George Herbert’s beautiful poem of the same name, will be sung by the Festival Chorus with the soprano soloist singing over the chorus the haunting words, 'Church bells beyond the stars heard'. This setting of George Herbert's poem 'Prayer' was commissioned by the Leicester Cathedral Music Foundation to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of Leicester Cathedral Girls' Choir in 1974, the first Church of England to create a girls' choir.
The text's themes of contemplation and hope are conveyed through McDowall's rich harmonic language, and a declamatory soprano solo carries the refrain 'Church-bells beyond the stars heard'. Herbert was known for his gentle, descriptive sacred poetry that brought calm to the tumultuous times he lived in. He was able to convey in short phrases the impact of prayerful reflection and the choir's beautiful melodies sung to 'Softness, and peace, and peace, and joy, and bliss' encourage the listener to continue forward with hope.
Prayer
Prayer the church's banquet, angel's age,
God's breath in man returning to his birth,
The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The Christian plummet sounding heav'n and earth
Engine against th' Almighty, sinner's tow'r,
Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
The six-days world transposing in an hour,
A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear;
Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,
Exalted manna, gladness of the best,
Heaven in ordinary, man well drest,
The milky way, the bird of Paradise,
Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul's blood,
The land of spices; something understood.
With the Bedford Park Festival Chorus and Orchestra
Orchestra led by David Juritz
Soloists:
The Bedford Park Festival Chorus
Watch here for names
The Bedford Park Festival Orchestra
Watch here for names
You can watch and listen to the recording of the 2023 service here and see the photographs in our Flickr album here.
Jonathan Dods conducting the Bedford Park Festival Chorus and Orchestra at the Festival Mass in 2023
Soloists: Soprano – Zoe Bonner, Alto – Eleanor Dann, Tenor – Sam Leggett, Bass – Jacob Harrison
