Choral Evensong at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church, Boca Raton

CHORAL EVENSONG
Sunday, May 26 at 6 PM
At St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church
100 NE Mizner Boulevard, Boca Raton, FL 33432

ABOUT CHORAL EVENSONG
Choral Evensong is perhaps one of the most beautiful of all services that comes out of the Anglican church. The service is quite literally a living history of our church and its traditions. Being basically Evening Prayer, apart from a few prayers and scripture readings, the service is sung by a choir and cantor. The office of Evensong traces its history of origin all the way back to Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Mary I, under whose hand he was burned at the stake in Oxford during her attempt to return England to Catholicism. Cranmer was trying to figure out a way to reduce the number of services within a day, as there was a series of services known as The Hours, which required one to attend many services throughout the day. He ended up combining two of the final services of the day, which were Vespers, sung at sunset, and Compline, so called because it completed the day, into one service. We find that the two major canticles of Evensong, the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, come from Vespers and Compline respectfully. The form of the service, with its psalms, scripture, collects, and prayers, originates from these two services and hasn’t changed too terribly much since first appearing in the 1549 Prayer Book. 

Many countless musical settings of the canticles and psalms have been composed throughout the centuries, making the service of Evensong rich in musical diversity, beauty, and heritage, and we in the Anglican Church are very blessed to have these services upon which to draw inspiration and guidance through their graceful elegance and tradition.

Our next Choral Evensong will be held Sunday evening, May 24, at 6 PM and will include the beautiful hymn by Daniel Iverson, “Spirit of the Living God,” and Gerald Finzi’s incredibly powerful and majestic anthem “God is Gone Up”. This Choral Evensong will celebrate the end of the Easter season and the beginning of the Pentecost season and will be our final Choral Evensong until October. Choral music performed of this caliber would normally be sung by concert choirs costing $50 or more in ticket price. At St. Gregory’s, we are privileged and blessed to hear this glorious music sung in the setting for which it was intended, the sacred and holy service of Choral Evensong, as part of our usual schedule of liturgies.