Rebroadcast of Choral Evensong Worship Service
The Chapel is currently closed to visitors, so our ministers and musicians have selected this Choral Evensong worship service to rebroadcast/re-post at the time when we would normally hold the service.
As we approach the Fifth Sunday in Lent and come ever closer to Holy Week and Easter, Christians around the world have marked this time in different ways. For some it is as simple as personal daily prayer at home; in different times others have historically embarked on pilgrimages to holy places, cathedrals, and collegiate chapels around the world. Though now closed Duke Chapel has filled this role to local communities and visitors across the globe.
The music from this Evensong service particularly reflects this idea of pilgrimage to find sanctuary and a place of rest from the world. The anthem, Expectans expectavi by Charles Wood, particularly evokes ideas and imagery of sanctuary and peace. Eric Surber eloquently wrote of this in his blog during the choir’s tour to Gloucester Cathedral in 2018:
As a place of spirituality and Christian worship, cathedrals offer a bold and visible reminder of our sameness. They are a physical reckoning of the human experience, illustrating the collection of triumphs and trials that not only Jesus experienced, but that millions of people have experienced since the cathedral was first established in 1089 AD. The sensory experience inside a cathedral is a bold reminder that, as humans, our journeys from life to death aren’t so different.
A powerful example of humanity’s interconnectedness I discovered from “historical” graffiti. In a small side chapel in Gloucester Cathedral, there is a stone effigy covered in names and dates. T. E. Rowe carved his name in the effigy in the year 1806, and you can still feel the indentions where he chiseled his name. Touching his name, I reflected on what Rowe’s experience to the cathedral was like. Was he a distant visitor like myself, or a regular worshipper? What compelled him to carve his name in the effigy? I’m certain that whatever his story, he was moved by the magnificence of the cathedral. The enormous, tennis-court sized East Window that dates to the 1300s is the largest surviving Medieval stained glass in England. I know he must have been moved by the organ, from the pipes that filled the space with sacred music, and the choir members sitting in the very stalls where we have sung evensong this week.
No matter one’s faith, cathedrals unconditionally embrace visitors and provide a refuge from the struggles of life outside the cathedral’s walls. I was particularly moved by the anthem we sang in yesterday’s Evensong service, Expectans Expectavi by Sir Charles Wood. Before the service, Kit stopped us from singing and read the text aloud, which is an excerpt of a poem by Charles Hamilton Sorley. The excerpt reads:
This sanctuary of my soul
Unwitting I keep white and whole,
Unlatched and lit, if Thou should’st care
To enter or to tarry there.
With parted lips and outstretched hands
And listening ears Thy servant stands,
Call Thou early, call Thou late,
To Thy great service dedicate.
My soul, keep white, and whole.
The poet died tragically at the age of 20 during the first world war, yet his poem is still regularly sung in evensong services around the world. With just a few slight adjustments, I think quite poignantly describes a cathedral. A cathedral is a sanctuary for the soul; unlatched and lit, if thou should’st care to tarry there. – Eric Surber, July 2018
Since its construction in the early 1930s Duke Chapel has joined the ranks of cathedrals and chapels around the world as a place of refuge. Even now while closed for a time it still serves this function to thousands each week online, and also to the university through daily playing of the carillon by former Organ Scholar Joey Fala.
At the conclusion of this evensong broadcast and following Wood’s anthem, Samuel Hammond, university carillonneur emeritus, reads the Collect for Schools, Colleges, and Universities. Now, as Duke finishes its first week of online classes in new and ever-changing forms the ongoing presence of Duke Chapel remains the same: a sanctuary for the soul.
Almighty God, we beseech thee, with thy gracious favor to behold our universities, colleges, and schools, that knowledge may be increased among us, and all good learning flourish and abound. Bless all who teach and all who learn; and grant that in humility of heart they may ever look unto thee, who art the fountain of all wisdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Though we may be currently separated by physical distance we remain connected through music, and to millions around the world who have prayed these words before us.
To help follow and understand the service, here is the music in the order in which it is heard:
- Drop, drop slow tears—Orlando Gibbons
- Preces and Responses—Richard Ayleward
- Psalms 42 and 43
- Service in D—Edward Bairstow
- Expectans expectavi—Charles Wood