27 March 2020
As all of our musicians are abiding by the self-isolation requirements, our #homeworship videos are all from our recent archives.
Today is the first of a two-part #homeworship (tomorrow will have the second part!), and was recorded by our talented boy choristers and lay clerks when we went on tour to the USA in 2014. It is one of Elizabethan composer William Byrd's great compositions for the season of Lent, a prayer to God not to be angry, for all of us are children of God: Ne irascaris Domine.
Historically, the season of Lent may originally have followed Epiphany, just as Jesus’ sojourn in the wilderness followed immediately on from his baptism, but it soon became firmly attached to Easter, as the principal time for preparation for baptism and for the reconciliation of those who had been excluded from the Church’s fellowship. This history explains the characteristic notes of Lent today – self-examination, penitence, self-denial, study, and preparation for Easter.