Monthly Album 18

A Crop of Carol Services

December’s Advent worship in the Cathedral, beyond the usual schedule and extra hours of confessions, brings visiting groups old and new to the Cathedral. New this year was Harrow School, perhaps in tribute to its distinguished alumnus Cardinal Manning. Will some echo of the boys’ singing have penetrated down to his quiet tomb in St Edmund’s Crypt Chapel, I wonder? Annual visitors for their Carol Service (pictured) are the girls of Woldingham School, who bring formidable musical resources of brass and a harp to accompany their music-making.

It is important for the Cathedral to keep up with best practice as best we can and the Lay Clerks of the Choir are seen celebrating the successful negotiation of new employment contracts which they had all just signed. The Covid Pandemic put an end to the traditional Seniors’ PreChristmas Party for a couple of years, a period during which we also lost the late Berenice Roetheli who had presided over its arrangements. The SVP Conference kindly agreed to take on the work of organisation for this year’s event and was rewarded with a bumper attendance of about 130 people.

Clerks in Celebration Seniors’ Partying