Every year at the Three Choirs Festival, the BBC broadcasts one of the Evensong services. We are requested to only stand for the Creed otherwise we are to be mindful of switching our mobile phones off, and of course, to be quiet.

Of all the daily Evensong services here st the Festival, I enjoyed this one the most! I really appreciated the quiet during the organist’s prelude and postlude, when people ordinarily are chatting. (Unfortunately some people think that when the organist starts playing, that’s the signal for people to start talking! Grrrr….!)

Wednesday afternoon at 3:30 pm was the designated BBC Evensong. We left our guest house at 2:45 pm (a 5-minute walk) and there were already a lot of people seated and waiting for the service to begin.

All of the service music except for the psalm tones were by women:

Introit: Set me as a seal (Kerensa Briggs, b. 1991)

Responses: Janet Wheeler (b. 1957)

Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis: Judith Weir (b. 1954)

Anthem: The Transiguration (Ina Boyle, 1889-1967)

Postlude: Finale, Symphony No 1 op 36 (Rachel Laurin, b. 1961)

Unfortunately even though our tickets say otherwise, we were not allowed to sit in the sanctuary alongside the choir, but were seated in the North transept. Thank goodness there were large video monitors for us to see all the action, and of course, we heard the choir, organ and officiant just fine.

I was speaking to a man in the audience earlier in the week and he said that he likes all of the concerts just fine, but what he absolutely loves are the daily Evensong services, which “put everything right with the world.”

Amen to that!