Quarantine 21, Evensong, 04-23

What a wonderful thing to sing Evensong again, even without a congregation. And not with a full choir, but just with a quartet, an organist and cellist. For once the church service was not recorded separately, partly from home and partly in church, and put together, but we had a full service, with sermon and prayers. It was a bit daunting to realize that I was on my own in the anthem, as in fact we all were. On the other hand, we were all together in it. It was a real joy to do this and made for another happy day. I had not realized how much the choir and church services meant to me and what a large part of my life especially the church choir has been for the past 20 years or so, after being widowed. Living on my own, the church is where I feel happy and have friends. A surrogate family? Perhaps, but a very important one. In fact the intimacy of the service was very moving. And it is good thus to keep in contact with each other, even in this limited way. Thanks to Christina, our organist and choirmaster, who invites each of us in turn to sing a service, so that we don’t lose contact with the choir and the church.