Yeah, I finally made it to church

This morning I was going to go visit a couple of different churches with service start times throughtout the morning and I just kept getting involved in other projects and never made it out. So, I made myself go to Solemn Evensong and Benediction at St. Paul's K Street, not just because I've been really bad this past week but because my friend John from Baltimore was playing the organ tonight. And, poor John! He's been sick in bed for the past four days, but I thought his organ playing sounded lovely and he looked much better than I had anticipated.

Tonight's service was sung by the Choir of Men and Boys, with about a dozen boys and eight gentlemen.

Not sure who the officiant was. He's not on the full-time staff. I think I've seen him before, but I'm not sure. He had on a lovely cope, though, with a matching stole. It was deep beige silk with bamboo designs woven tone-on-tone into the fabric, a light olive green lining, and a fully operational hood.

For the prelude, John played a soft reedy thing called "Folk Tune" from Five Short Pieces by Percy Whitlock. I noticed the choirmaster was turning pages and he was having trouble getting the music to stay open.

The canticles were Evening Service in B-flat, Op. 10 by Charles Villiers Stanford. The choral Anglican chants were by Peter Godfrey for Psalm 8 and C.H.H. Parry for Psalm 84. The office hymn was Nunc dimittis from the old Hymnal 1940. Their anthem was "Before the Ending of the Day" by Healey Willan.

For the postlude, John played "Fanfare" by Kenneth Leighton. It was fun....modern, but not too dissonant.

Here's a picture of John after the service. I must admit, though, that I was quite taken aback to see him looking so naked! I didn't see his hood anywhere!