St Mary Redcliffe Church Parish Magazine - December/January 2018

Evensong (having taken the Sarum rite as his basis) with Compline which
then doubled the responses, Lord’s Prayer, canticles and lessons. The
1549 book continued the term Evensong, though this moved further
from the Anglo-Saxon into Evening Prayer in the more reformed book of
1552 thence onto the 1662.
The Church’s early Evensong descended from the Jewish tradition of
evening prayers conducted as the light faded and the candles were lit. To
the Jews the end of daylight was the end of the day and thus the evening
prayers began the new day. Early Christians followed this tradition and
hence a feast-day’s First Evensong was on the eve, and the Second Evensong
was on the day. Technically the earliest Evensong could be was the winter
fading light at 3pm and thus adopted by most cathedrals. In more modern
practice it now tends to be later than this. (Philip Baxter)
Additional notes:
* http://london-city-churches.org.uk/map_of_churches.html
Attendance at midweek services in our Cathedrals (primarily choral
evensong) has increased by over 60% in the last ten years. Every
week some 700 Cathedrals, abbeys, chapels and churches across the
United Kingdom and Ireland sing choral evensong (over 1000 times!).
Wherever you find yourself you’re never that far from being part of this
remarkable and very beautiful worship tradition. To find a service, use
the search facility on this site: https://www.choralevensong.org/uk/
If you can’t make it to a service in person, BBC Radio 3 broadcasts a live
service of choral evensong on at 3.30pm every Wednesday afternoon
(repeated on Sunday at 3pm). This is the longest continuously running
outside broadcast in the history of live radio. The first broadcast of Choral
Evensong took place from Westminster Abbey on 7 October 1926 (the
setting — Fauxbourdons by the 16th century composer William Byrd: the
anthem O sing Unto the Lord by the 18th century composer William Boyce).
Two West Country Cathedrals have hosted significant live broadcasts
of the service — in 1970 the first stereo broadcast was from Gloucester
Cathedral and in 1993 the first Cathedral Girls’ Choir sung the service in
a broadcast from Salisbury Cathedral.
Cecile Gillard
THE STORIES BEHIND SOME OF OUR CAROLS — LESTER CLEMENTS
Says Lester: Over the Christmas period, carols will be sung up and
down the land, but did you know some of the stories behind them...
Good King Wenceslas
Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia, born Prague
c.905, died Stará Boleslav 28 September 935.
Saint & martyr: Catholic and Eastern Orthodox
churches; feast 28 September. St Wenceslas
Flaming Eagle (above) became the Coat of
Arms of the ruling Czech Przemyslid Dynasty
WENCESLAUS (Wenceslas) was
the son of Vratislaus, Duke of
Bohemia of the Przemyslid dynasty.
His grandfather had been converted
to Christianity; his mother, Drahomira,
the daughter of a pagan tribal chief,
was baptised at the time of her marriage.
His paternal grandmother,
Ludmila of Bohemia, oversaw his
education and at an early age he
was sent to college at Budec. In 921
Wenceslas’s father died and Ludmila
became regent, but Drahomira was
jealous of Ludmila’s influence over
Wenceslas so she had her murdered
(possibly strangled with her veil);
Ludmilla was buried at the church of
St Michael of Tetin but her remains
were later removed, probably by
Wenceslas, to St George’s church in
Prague, which had been built by his
father. Drahomira assumed the role
of regent and immediately initiated
measures against the Christians but
when Wenceslas came of age (c.925)
he took control of the government
and exiled his mother. To prevent
any disputes, he divided the country
between himself and his younger
brother, Boleslav, to whom he gave
a large share. He brought in German
priests and favoured the Latin rite in
churches over the old Slavic rite (seldom
used for want of priests), and
founded a rotunda consecrated to St
Vitus at Prague Castle (today St Vitus
cathedral). However, in 935 Boleslav
and nobles plotted to kill Wenceslas,
and invited him to the feast of Saints
Cosmas and Damian where three
nobles stabbed to him to death and
Boleslav ran him through with a lance.
Wenceslas was considered both
martyr and saint immediately after
his death, and a monarch whose
power stemmed from his great piety
as well as his princely vigour.The
chronicler Cosmas of Prague, writing
around the year 1119, states:
“But his deed I think you know better
that I could tell you; for, as is read in