Last Things: Evensong

With our days in Cambridge and the U.K. numbered, we decided it was time to see and do all the activities still on our "to do" list.  Classes  were ending for the term here at Cambridge and hence our chances to experience Evensong at Kings College Chapel were running out. We planned to attend the event on Tuesday evening November 29; what we didn't plan on was the soaking rain made even more miserable by my lack of an umbrella.  We turned around and went home instead.  Good thing there were a few more days'  observances to choose from.

Wednesday was a dry day with no threat of rain and we decided to try again to attend the service.  I carried my umbrella, though, just to be on the safe side. We queued up with others at the appointed time and waited for the doors of the chapel to be opened.

Kings College Chapel on the left

Ceiling of Kings' College Chapel seen during the day

Right on cue, we were ushered in and given booklets to follow the service.  The choir processed in, the young boys being more precise in their right or left turns to the choir stalls than the young men, followed by the celebrants.   There must have been about 7 or 8 in the celebrants' group; one was a woman; she was allowed to carry a candle.  I knew we would hear some prayers and some singing and thought that the whole service would last about 30-40 minutes.  As the sung parts became more familiar and the service lengthened, it slowly dawned on us that this was not Evensong, but the Anglican Mass.  In ways it was like being transported back to pre-Vatican II days (or back to the future????) since the music and words of the hymns especially the Credo were exactly those we had sung years ago.  

So we still haven't experienced Evensong but we did hear a choir at Kings College.  That will have to suffice.