Music and Worship: Welcome to Evensong, Part 1

Chandler’s Ford is one of few parishes in its area with Evensong on most Sunday evenings. Older readers will know that Evensong was once widely offered and well attended – we can speculate why the change has taken place, but might also note that attendances for Evensong have increased at some cathedrals in recent years.

Evensong can present ‘problems’ because it’s based on the Book of Common Prayer with ‘thees’ and ‘thous’ and other old-fashioned language. (The earliest Book of Common Prayer dates from 1549, about 50 years before Shakespeare wrote his plays. The style of language in the 1662 Book, as now used, is the same.) There are powerful commonsense arguments against archaic language in worship. But on the other hand, the distancing effect of old language can cause us to examine what we hear in a new way.

What happens at Evensong? Before the service the organist plays, to try to create an atmosphere in which it’s possible for people to reflect, pray, prepare in some other way, or just listen. The choir enters, a short welcome is given, and then an opening hymn is sung. Hymns are [starting in 2009] from Anglican Hymns Old and New, the book that we use at morning Eucharists, although we stick to the more traditional hymns at Evensong.

After the hymn there is a prayer of confession, and a declaration of God’s forgiveness. The confession raises two important issues. First, we say that we are ‘miserable offenders’, an expression that can seem grovelling and at odds with twentieth-century concepts of self-worth – can it tell us anything about ourselves and our relationship with God? Secondly, we say this quite long prayer week after week. Does it become just a meaningless flow of words (however beautifully constructed the sentences)? If so, does that tell us something about all liturgies or something about ourselves?

A short sung dialogue between minister and congregation follows. It begins ‘O Lord, open thou our lips’ with the reply ‘And our mouth shall show forth thy praise’. These words are based on Psalm 51, verse 15.

After the dialogue we sing together a complete psalm or part of a psalm. The psalms together formed the nearest that the ancient church (and the Jewish synagogue) had to a hymn book. For the people who wrote the psalms no holds were barred. They were prepared to shout at God, to give ecstatic praises, to pour out their woes – and so on. Perhaps we can identify still with some of their thoughts, beliefs and emotions, or at least learn from them more about the human condition.

The psalm is followed by a reading from the Old Testament. You might almost say that scripture is at the centre of Evensong, and the centre of Evensong (from the psalm through to the song after the second reading) is scripture.

Why not sample Evensong for yourself if you haven’t done so before or for ages? Has it something unique to say to us? To you?