HOLY WEEK FESTIVAL 2015 Comedy Silent Cinema Science Blues & Jazz Art & Photography Café & Garden Labyrinth BBC Wiltshire Royal Academy of Music Prayer Handel’s Messiah (Part II)
MALMESBURY ABBEY March 23rd—April 5th
VICAR’S BLOG//welcome Every morning my cat, Zach, leaps over the wall from Abbey House Gardens and takes exactly the same route to his cat flap. Over years a little rut has developed in the lawn where he carefully plants his paws. I suspect, given time, a similar groove will appear on the route I take from the vicarage to my large 12th century office in the centre of town. I am there an awful lot, it’s a tremendous place to work, and I am grateful to my colleagues in the 7th century who first set up shop and started praying there. However most months I meet somebody who lives or works in Malmesbury and has never set foot inside the Abbey. I get it, of course. Massive 12th century religious buildings don’t always come across as warmly inviting—even if they have an amazing café hidden inside. So our Holy Week Festival each year, focusing on the creative and performing arts, is designed to make our invitation a little bit more explicit. Prayer and singing songs at Easter may not be your thing, but what about comedy, jazz, blues, science, classical music, coffee, wine, silent movies, art or an Easter Egg Hunt? (The latter is for children.) Have a look through the brochure. You are really welcome to come to as much as you like. Some of the events, particularly the comedy, jazz, science and silent movie will be really busy. Tickets, where necessary, are available in the Abbey or at: www.ticketsource.co.uk/malmesburyabbey
Enquiries 01666 826666 // Box Office 01666 824339 office@malmesburyabbey.com www.malmesburyabbey.com issuu.com/malmesburyabbey
THE GARDEN LABYRINTH//prayer The Abbey Holy Week labyrinth is a spiritual exploration that leads pilgrims slowly around a circular maze on which they pause and encounter ancient texts, symbolic actions and reflections for personal development. This year Sandra Chin and the team have reinvented this medieval Christian practice as a tree-lined journey leading from one garden to another—Eden to Gethsemane—and ultimately to a Tree of Life. From March 23rd to 28th The Garden Labyrinth is open when the Abbey is open—allow yourself up to an hour; it is suitable for children. On March 25th & 27th the labyrinth will be candlelit and open all evening with a café.
STATIONS OF THE CROSS//art Each year, as part of their course work, A-level art students from Malmesbury School challenge us to look differently at the Stations of the Cross, art depicting Christ’s journey in the final hours before his crucifixion. Join the artists on Saturday 28th March at 10am as they reveal the story behind their interpretations, or simply come in over Holy Week & Easter and spend time with a great new body of work. FRONT COVER Station XIV:Jesus laid in the tomb by Hannah Robinson THIS PAGE Birch by Harry Harris/Flickr 321757275 INSIDE BACK COVER Barbed Wire by Steve R Watson Flickr/3538705633
PAUL KERENSA//comedy Saturday 28th March, 7.30pm
‘If I was a joke thief, I would be shinning up Paul Kerensa’s drainpipe.’ Milton Jones (Mock the Week) ‘Uniquely funny and interesting. TV comedy is richer for Paul being a part of it.’ Miranda Hart (Miranda, Call the Midwife) The comedian Paul Kerensa is a writer for BBC1’s Miranda and Not Going Out, among countless others. An in-demand comic, who has played the Edinburgh Fringe and the Montreal Comedy Festival, Paul is equally at home playing comedy clubs or cathedrals and is one of the few to have appeared both at London’s Comedy Store and on Radio 2’s Pause For Thought. Now a decade into his stand-up career, Paul’s one-man show has played to packed-out clubs, churches and other venues over the last few years, including festivals such as Greenbelt and New Wine. Bar & Café from 7pm Ticket details next page
with ROSIE ARCHER & PETER JAMES//jazz Supporting Paul Kerensa, at what promises to be a very special night out at the Abbey, is Malmesbury’s own Rosie Archer. Fresh from The Malmesbury Nativity and from performing and recording Benjamin Till’s Brass with the National Youth Music Theatre of Great Britain, Rosie brings to life jazz classics from Etta James, James Brown and Billie Holliday, accompanied by Peter James, pianist with the Peter James Trio, described by Jazz UK Magazine as ’beautifully melodic and quite captivating.’ . They’ll both be back on Sunday night exploring the blues with Kairos Ensemble, see over.
Admission £5, £3 (Students & Under 18s) Tickets from the Abbey or at www.ticketsource.co.uk/malmesburyabbey
KAIROS ENSEMBLE// blues & jazz Sunday 29th March at 7.30pm
Kairos Ensemble returns to Malmesbury Abbey to perform music from their latest release, Rejoicing Blues. ‘One of the most delightful albums of 2013’ Jazz Journal. ‘A collection of beautifully-played, inventive and vibrant tunes, Rejoicing Blues is itself an inspiration.’ Bruce Lindsay, All About Jazz. This special concert also features guest vocalist Rosie Archer on music including Kairos Ensemble’s previous recording, Passion Suite, a composition written by pianist Peter James based on the Easter narrative. ‘Beautiful music’ Julian Joseph, Jazz Line-Up, Radio 3. Kairos Ensemble are Peter James (piano), Dan Foster (sax, Pasadena Roof Orchestra, David Byrne), Richard Fox (tuba, London Sinfonietta, June Tabor), and Tom Hooper (drums, Christian Garrick, Simple Minds, Johnny Dankworth.)
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2015 DIARY WEEK 1
March 23rd to 28th The Garden Labyrinth all day Café open 9am-4pm 9am Morning Prayer, each day Wednesday 25th March 5pm-9.30pm Late Night Garden Labyrinth by candlelight, with café 9.30pm Late Night Glory! Friday 27th March 5pm-9.30pm Late Night Garden Labyrinth by candlelight, with café 9.30pm Night Prayer with Plainsong Saturday 28th March 9am Morning Prayer 10am Meet the Artists: Stations of the Cross 7.30pm Paul Kerensa (comedy) with Rosie Archer & Peter James (jazz), hosted by John Monaghan. Palm Sunday 9am BCP Holy Communion 10.30am Outdoor Communion 4pm Café Service & Junior Church 7.30pm Kairos Ensemble (blues and jazz)
PROFESSOR SIMON CONWAY MORRIS//Does the resurrection make any scientific sense? Monday 30th March at 7.30pm
Simon Conway Morris is a Professor of Evolutionary Palaeobiology in the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of St John's. His research interests include the Burgess Shale (summarized in The Crucible of Creation) and evolutionary convergence (tackled in Life's Solution and more recently The Runes of Evolution). He was elected to the Royal Society in 1990, and is also active in public outreach. These include the 1996 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, websites (including Map of Life and forthcoming FortyTwo), and the science-religion debates. Undisturbed he can usually be found reading something by either G.K. Chesterton or the Inklings, with a glass of wine (or something stronger) immediately to hand. Professor Morris writes: ‘Worlds visible and invisible are familiar currency to both scientists and theologians, but they refer to very different things. Radio waves are not the same as bilocation. Scientists thrive on the predictable, but theologians keep an open mind about the unique, such as the Resurrection. So no common ground? It all depends on your worldpicture. Animals can recognize numbers but can't do maths. Animals can vocalize, but they cannot speak. Why the difference? There are several possibilities, but if we are willing to take the immaterial as paradoxically real, then we are invited to enter very different worlds.’
Café & Bar from 7pm Admission Free. Tickets from the Abbey or at www.ticketsource.co.uk/malmesburyabbey
THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME//Anthony Hammond (organ) Tuesday 31st March at 7.30pm Last year we packed the Abbey as the sun set and the lights were turned off. Clutching a glass of wine, we watched as Lon Chaney’s Phantom of the Opera, in an ever darkening building, rather blew us away. This year his 1923 epic The Hunchback of Notre Dame will be projected onto the vast east wall. Again the music won’t be pre-recorded but will be live and improvised as international organist Anthony Hammond, who has given recitals in San Francisco, Washington and Boston, USA, interprets the screen images, live, on the Abbey organ. Arrive early for a seat. Café & Bar from 7pm Admission £5, £3 (Students & Under 18s) Tickets from the Abbey or at www.ticketsource.co.uk/malmesburyabbey
THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF MUSIC// Quartet for the end of time Maundy Thursday at 7.30pm On January 15th 1941 one of the most remarkable pieces of music of the 20th century had its first performance. It was a bitterly cold day, and this new piece wasn’t premiered in a concert hall or in a great cathedral but in the Stalag VIIIA prisoner-of-war camp in Görlitz, Germany. French prisoners of war crowded into Barack 27, with German officers sitting on the front row. For 50 minutes the war stopped as an unlikely audience listened to a piano, a violin, a clarinet and a cello play the music of a French prisoner, Olivier Messaien. His timeless work, the Quartet for the End of Time, was inspired by Revelation 10. This Maundy Thursday at 7.30pm, this extraordinary work is, we believe, to be given it’s first performance in Malmesbury Abbey. Performed, along with solo suites by JS Bach, by four outstanding young musicians from London’s Royal Academy of Music: Joseph Havlat (piano), Tanya Sweiry (violin), Jordan Black (clarinet) & Hannah Innes (cello).
Admission £5, £3 (Students & Under 18s) Tickets from the Abbey or at www.ticketsource.co.uk/malmesburyabbey
GOOD FRIDAY// Allegri, Handel & Purcell Good Friday at 6.30pm Good Friday is the day on which two billion Christians worldwide remember the king who wore a crown of thorns—a Messiah dying that a broken and dark world might have hope. At the heart of our five acts of worship this Good Friday is a Devotional Concert from Malmesbury Abbey Choir, at 6.30pm. Allegri’s Miserere, Purcell’s Hear my prayer and choruses from Handel’s Messiah Part II will be interspersed with readings from St Mark’s Gospel. This event is not ticketed, but please arrive early to be assured of a seat.
Good Friday Services 9am Morning Prayer 10.30am Service of the Cross (for all ages) 12noon Churches Together March of Witness 6.30pm Devotional Concert (see above) 8pm Service of the Tomb (Night Prayer)
EASTER EVE & EASTER DAY
2015 DIARY WEEK 2
Saturday April 4th & Sunday April 5th ‘Alleluia! Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!’ These words, proclaimed for centuries at Easter by the global church, will resound across the six Easter services at the Abbey. As is the case in many Cathedrals, Easter begins with a service on Easter Eve, at 7pm. The Abbey is again delighted to be working in partnership with BBC WILTSHIRE to record Easter from Malmesbury Abbey, for broadcast on Easter Day and Easter Monday across the county. Tickets (£3) are now available for this event. On Easter Day you are very welcome to all our services but please note that our choral Holy Communion at 10.30am and our Family Celebration at 4pm are particularly full and you are advised to arrive early.
Monday 30th March 9am Morning Prayer 7.30pm Simon Conway Morris Tuesday 31st March 9am Morning Prayer 7.30pm Hunchback of Notre Dame Wednesday 1st April 9am Morning Prayer 10.30am Holy Communion 7.30pm Glory! Prayer 10pm Malmesbury Abbey Choir: Allegri, Handel & Purcell Maundy Thursday 9am Holy Communion 7.30pm The Royal Academy of Music 10pm Service in the Garden Good Friday see previous page Easter Eve 7pm BBC Wiltshire Easter Service (please be seated by 6.30pm) Easter Day 6am Dawn Service & Breakfast 9am BCP Holy Communion 10.30am Holy Communion 4pm Family Easter Celebration & Easter Egg Hunt 6.30pm Easter Choral Evensong