Carol Service - Canterbury Cathedral

Date: Wednesday 16 December 2009

The Michaelmas Term 2009 ended yesterday in traditional fashion with the St Edmund's School Carol Service in the Nave of Canterbury Cathedral. A congregation of over 1000, including pupils from all three schools, staff, parents, former pupils, governors, friends, and the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress, filled the Nave with an air of expectation.

This was, after all, the first such service crafted for St Edmund's by the new chaplain, Robert Prance, and the first for which new Director of Music, Wiiliam Bersey, had prepared the choirs. And, of course, it lived up to, and perhaps outdid expectation. As one thrilled parent said to me afterwards, 'St Edmund's is such a brilliant school; everything they have done this term has been out of the top drawer.' Thank you for the compliment!

And that was certainly a valid reflection on yesterday evening. A service of nearly an hour and a half provided an evening of magic, as new and traditional readings melded together, outstanding being Director of Drama, Mark Sell's performance, for that is what it was, of T.S.Eliot's 'Journey of the Magi'.

The congregation sang lustily, as a series of favourite hymns and carols tested their lungs. The opener was, as ever, 'Once in Royal David's City', with the first verse solo from one of the Cathedral Choristers, James Plumbly-Broughton, and the service ended, as ever, with 'O Come, All Ye Faithful'. The best for me - 'Lo, He comes with clouds descending' - as 'God appears on earth to reign'.

The Senior Junior School Choir, under Spencer Payne's baton, and with Julian Lambert as accompanist sang 'The Little Road to Bethlehem', before the Abingdon House tableau, resplendent with home made camels, processed to the Pulpitum Steps, as Lily Carr read, absolutely beautifully, Thomas Hardy's poem, 'The Oxen'.

The Chapel Choir, enhanced by the presence of 'the Sixteen', were in better form than ever at this annual event. Soloists - Tom Lowen, Sophie Belinfante, Ben Preece, and Eleanor Blanning - were outstanding as the choirs gave us some Howells, Rutter (inevitably at Christmas!), Poulenc, Kenneth Leighton's setting of the 'Coventry Carol', and the highly charged and emotive 'O Magnum Mysterium' by Morten Lauridsen. Well done, Mr Bersey, indeed!

After the departure of the procession, the stewards for the day - our School Prefects - remained busy, taking the retiring collection. I am pleased to give thanks to the generosity of the congregation for their preparedness to support the three separate causes of Amnesty International, a township in South Africa, Kwamashu, where former pupil Matt Dixon is currently working amidst the most appalling of conditions, and, primarily, Cornerstone School in Arusha, Tanzania, to whom most of our charitable efforts of the term have been directed. Thank you, everybody, who made a contribution.

So, a happy Christmas to all our readers, and the best wishes I can offer you for the new year of 2010. Unless anything of real interest occurs in the next three weeks, yours truly will be giving his typing fingers a well-earned break!