Choral Evensong will be livestreamed and available on our YouTube channel from 6.25pm Sunday 7th June at:
https://www.youtube.com/live/V749oOmi314
PRELUDE:
CONFESSION
Dearly beloved brethren, I pray and beseech you, as many as are here present, to accompany me with a pure heart and humble voice unto the throne of the heavenly grace, saying after me:
Almighty and most merciful Father
We have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep,
We have followed too much the devices
and desires of our own hearts,
We have offended against thy holy laws,
We have left undone those things which
we ought to have done,
And we have done those things
which we ought not to have done,
And there is no health in us:
But thou, O Lord, have mercy
upon us miserable offenders;
Spare thou them, O God, which confess their faults,
Restore thou them that are penitent,
According to thy promises declared unto mankind
in Christ Jesu our Lord:
And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake,
That we may hereafter live a godly, righteous,
and sober life,
To the glory of thy holy Name. Amen.
ABSOLUTION
Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who desireth not the death of a sinner,
but rather that he may turn from his wickedness and live;
and hath given power, and commandment, to his ministers,
to declare and pronounce to his people, being penitent,
the absolution and remission of their sins:
he pardoneth and absolveth all them that truly repent
and unfeignedly believe his holy gospel.
Wherefore let us beseech him to grant us true repentance,
and his Holy Spirit, that those things may please him which we do at this present;
and that the rest of our life hereafter may be pure and holy;
so that at the last we may come to his eternal joy;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
PRECCES AND RESPONSES Smith
O Lord, open thou our lips.
And our mouth shall show forth thy praise.
O God, make speed to save us;
O Lord, make haste to help us.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.
Praise ye the Lord.
The Lord's Name be praised.
OFFICE HYMN NEH 150
O blest Creator of the light,
Who makest day with radiance bright,
And o’er the forming world didst call
The light from chaos first of all.
Whose wisdom joined in meet array
The morn and eve, and named them Day:
Night comes with all its darkling fears;
Regard thy people’s prayers and tears:
Lest, sunk in sin and whelm’d with strife,
They lose the gift of endless life;
While, thinking but the thoughts of time,
They weave them chains of guilt and crime.
But grant them grace that they may strain
The heavenly gate and prize to gain:
Each harmful lure aside to cast,
And purge away each error past.
O Father, that we ask be done,
Through Jesus Christ, thine only Son,
Who with the Spirit and with thee
Doth live and reign eternally. Amen
Psalm: 13 (double, Barnby in A minor)
1 How long wilt thou forget me O Lord, for ever :
how long wilt thou hide my face from me?
2 How long shall I seek counsel in my soul, and be so vex’d in my heart :
how long shall mine enemies triumph over me?
3 Consider and hear me O Lord my God :
lighten mine eyes that I sleep not in death.
4 Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him :
for if I be cast down, they that trouble me will rejoice at it.
5 But my trust is in thy mercy :
and my heart is joyful in thy salvation.
6 I will sing of the Lord, because he hath dealt so lovingly with me :
yea I will praise the name of the Lord most Highest.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world
without end, Amen
FIRST READING Deuteronomy 30: 15-20
See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.
But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;
I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
MAGNIFICAT: Ireland in F
My soul doth magnify the Lord
and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
For he hath regarded : the lowliness of his hand-maiden.
For behold, from henceforth :
all generations shall call me blessed.
For he that is mighty hath magnified me :
and holy is his Name.
And his mercy is on them that fear him :
throughout all generations.
He hath shewed strength with his arm :
he hath scattered the proud
in the imagination of their hearts.
He hath put down the mighty from their seat :
and hath exalted the humble and meek.
He hath filled the hungry with good things :
and the rich he hath sent empty away.
He remembering his mercy hath holpen his servant Israel :
as he promised to our forefathers,
Abraham and his seed for ever.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son :
and to the Holy Ghost:
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be :
world without end. Amen
SECOND READING: 1 Corinthians 3: 1-9
And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?
Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?
I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.
For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.
NUNC DIMITTIS: Ireland in F
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace :
according to thy word.
For mine eyes have seen: thy salvation;
Which thou hast prepared: before the face of all people;
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles:
and to be the glory of thy people Israel.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son :
and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be :
world without end. Amen.
THE APOSTLES CREED
I believe in God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth:
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord,
Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
Born of the Virgin Mary,
Suffered under Pontius Pilate,
Was crucified, dead, and buried:
He descended into hell;
The third day he rose again from the dead;
He ascended into heaven,
And sitteth on the right hand
of God the Father Almighty;
From thence he shall come to judge
the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost;
The holy Catholic Church;
The Communion of Saints;
The Forgiveness of sins;
The Resurrection of the body,
And the Life everlasting.
Amen.
VERSICLES AND RESPONSES Smith
The Lord be with you;
And with thy spirit.
Let us pray.
Lord, have mercy upon us.
Christ, have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon us.
Our Father, which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done,
in earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
Amen.
O Lord, show thy mercy upon us.
And grant us thy salvation.
O Lord, save the King.
And mercifully hear us when we call upon thee.
Endue thy Ministers with righteousness.
And make thy chosen people joyful.
O Lord, save thy people.
And bless thine inheritance.
Give peace in our time, O Lord.
Because there is none other that fighteth for us,
But only thou, O God
O God, make clean our hearts within us.
And take not thy Holy Spirit from us.
COLLECT OF THE DAY
COLLECT FOR PEACE
O God, from whom all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works do proceed: Give unto thy servants that peace which the world cannot give; that both our hearts may be set to obey thy commandments, and also that by thee we being defended from the fear of our enemies may pass our time in rest and quietness; through the merits of Jesus Christ our Saviour: Amen.
COLLECT AGAINST ALL PERILS
Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord; and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of the night; for the love of thy only Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
THE PRAYERS
A PRAYER FOR THE KING'S MAJESTY
O Lord of our fathers, who rulest the nations of the earth; Most heartily we beseech thee with thy favour to bless our Sovereign Lord, King Charles, his ministers and parliaments, and all who are set in authority throughout his dominions and the world; that they may order all things in wisdom and righteousness, to the honour of thy Holy Name and the good of all thy people; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
A PRAYER OF ST JOHN CHYSOSTOM
Almighty God, who hast given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplications unto thee; and dost promise that when two or three are gathered together in thy Name thou wilt grant their requests: Fulfil now, O Lord, the desires and petitions of thy servants, as may be most expedient for them; granting us in this world knowledge of thy truth, and in the world to come life everlasting. Amen.
HYMN NEH 251, omit verse 4)
1 Sun of my soul, thou Saviour dear,
It is not night if thou be near:
O may no earth-born cloud arise
To hide thee from thy servant’s eyes.
2 When the soft dews of kindly sleep
My wearied eyelids gently steep,
Be my last thought, how sweet to rest
For ever on my Saviour’s breast
3 Abide with me from morn till eve,
For without thee I cannot live;
Abide with me when night is nigh,
For without thee I dare not die.
5 Watch by the sick; enrich the poor
With blessings from thy boundless store;
Be every mourner’s sleep tonight
Like infant’s slumbers, pure and light.
6 Come near and bless us when we wake,
Ere through the world our way we take;
Till in the ocean of thy love
We lose ourselves in heaven above.
BLESSING
Voluntary: