Evensong’s Quiet Revival

Thanks to Fr. Michael Peterson, our oblate director, for directing my attention to this article on increased interest in Evensong at England’s university chapels.  The quote of the New College assistant chaplain is true: “Very hard working students say that [Evensong] provides a time towards the end of the day when you can just sit in silence and tune out all of these influences.”

I had the immense privilege of singing in the Castle Chapel Choir at Durham University (the photo is of the Castle’s Tunstall Chapel). In spite of all the statistics about emptying churches and cathedrals in the CofE, the attendance was healthy most of the time and even more so on other occasions.  (The place was so packed for Lessons and Carols it was a Tudor-era-chapel fire hazard, I’m sure.)