The City of Canterbury in the County of Kent is one of the most picturesque cities of England and is home to the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury the symbolic leader of the worldwide Anglican Church. 

Founded in 597, Canterbury Cathedral was rebuilt between 1070 and 1077 and greatly enlarged at the beginning of the 12th century and largely rebuilt in the Gothic style following a fire in 1174, The Norman nave and transepts survived until the late 14th century, when they were demolished to make way for the present structures.

Here the Choir of St Paul’s College were warmly welcomed by the Dean the Very Reverend David Monteith and the other clergy and sang Evensong for New Year’s Day and again on 2 January. They delighted the large congregation of locals and a few who had come down from London, after word spread about the splendour of the choir’s music, with the singing of William James’s Australian carol Carol of the Birds, David Drury’s arrangement of Silent Night and Balfour Gardiner’s Evening Hymn. 

The cathedral is the burial place for many interesting people including Bishop William Broughton, first bishop of Australia who was an early advocate for a Church of England college in Sydney. With his involvement in the establishment of the University of Sydney he was against it being a secular institution and therefore opposed the proposal that church residential colleges be established within its grounds. Yet he remained involved with Sir Alfred Stephen in the committee for the establishment of St Paul’s until his return to England in 1852 [See. J M Bennett, Sir Alfred Stephen, 2009 and A Atkinson, Hearts and Minds, 2017]. 

Then to the City of York in North Yorkshire where this other ancient settlement boasts one of the finest cathedrals in Europe, York Minster. The under croft contains re-used fabric of c. 1160, but the bulk of the building was constructed between 1220 and 1472 in Perpendicular Gothic style. Being the weekend, the choir was given a busy schedule which started with a very rewarding choral workshop with Robert Hollingworth – winner of numerous Gramophone Awards, artistic director of the internationally-renowned I Fagiolini and the head of the Masters of Solo Voice Ensemble singing at the University of York. Then it was Saturday Evensong with a large congregation filling the choir and on Sunday the Feast of Epiphany, when the 32 choir members and the retinue of 16 followers trudged through the early morning snow up to the Minster, where they sang at Matins, Eucharist and Evensong. 

A special treat was the impromptu unaccompanied singing of Philip Stopford’s 2008 setting of Luli Lulay sung in the incredible acoustic of the octagonal Chapter House. The video below had incredibly been sent to the composer of the work, who messaged the Choir stating that he wished we had invited him along to join in. 

Pictures and video: Vanessa Agius, Noel Debien, Richard Morgan