Winchester Episcopal Review, Some Reflections on Church Music and Culture

The Episcopal Review of Winchester Cathedral was completed recently and a summary published on-line.  The presenting crisis was the departure last year of Andy Lumsden, the Director of Music, after more than 20 years in post.  The Review tells us very little about the events, disagreements and failures in communication that led up to the event, but clearly there has been, and, no doubt, still is, a great deal of unhappiness among staff and stakeholders in the management and running of Winchester Cathedral.   The Bishop, Philip Mountstephen, identifies ‘declining performance, unsatisfactory relationships and failings in leadership and management’ at the Cathedral, justifying both the current Review and the recommendations that flow out of it.    

The published summary of the Episcopal Review is only ten pages long and the reader is given little detail which would account, for example, for the Dean bringing forward her announced retirement from May 2025 to this month.  It is not profitable to speculate on these matters, and I have no access to any source of inside information.  What is hinted at in the Review, as the central concern, is the issue of music and the part that it plays in 21st century cathedral worship.  While there are bound to be precise details about the management failings as well as the behaviour of individuals within the Cathedral community, the summary Review does not name names or apportion blame to anyone.  We are left to speculate on what might be the broad issues prompting the Review.  My own assumption is, from the evidence of the summary, that the context of the Review is a number of serious disagreements about the place of music among those involved in its provision.  A telling sentence appears on page 7, suggesting serious non-communication and diverging understandings of the role of music in the life of the Cathedral.  ‘It was felt that Chapter simply did not understand the musical side of the Cathedral’.  Such non-communication and misunderstanding are probably found in other centres of musical excellence in Britain today.  How do these centres best fit in with the rapidly changing face (and decline) of church life in this country?  The cathedral music tradition is for many still a compelling reason for attaching themselves to churches which maintain an active choral tradition, but which is so radically different from what is commonly termed ‘Christian music’.

Seventy years ago, I was a member of the cathedral choir in Canterbury.  The experience opened me up to appreciate a particular style of church music which has since become familiar to quite large numbers of people. At that time, the 50s, cathedral-type music was known only to those who attended cathedrals or one of a limited number of Oxford/Cambridge chapels and other foundations where choral traditions had been maintained.  Little of this genre of music was filtering through to the general public in Britain. The BBC radio programme with a reputation for the high brow, the Third Programme, seemed to show little interest in this rich vein of sacred choral music, whether in 16th /17th century polyphonic manifestations or later styles.  Two further reasons for the non-circulation of cathedral music were current.  The first was that LP records were extremely expensive.  If there were recordings of church music, they would have been priced at 35 shillings each, a sum equivalent to over £30 today.  The second fact was that there was simply no exposure to this style of music except among the vanishingly small number of active church musicians.  The only church music familiar to the general public were hymns and the yearly broadcast of the King’s Cambridge carols.  One piece of church music did penetrate into popular consciousness when the boy chorister, Ernest Lough, sung Mendelsohn’s ‘O for the wings of a dove’ in the mid-30s and the record was widely acclaimed.  The arrival of Radio 3 in around 1964 had the welcome effect that more music of every kind, including church music, was aired, no doubt creating a new ‘fan-base’ for what had been an extremely niche cultural taste.

Today we can note two major changes in the church music scene. One is that the music found formerly only in cathedrals and a cluster of Oxbridge chapels has spread out widely from this narrow base.  Both in terms of the number of musicians performing such music and those hearing it, there has been enormous growth and appreciation of this particular style.  Secondly there has been growth in the music available to be sung.  Some of this is as the result of new compositions by young composers who are fascinated by the ancient tradition that binds music and worship together.  There has also been a large amount of serious academic scholarship, bringing to light forgotten or neglected masterpieces of the past, particularly from the age of Elizabeth I when English music of all kinds excelled.

The rise in popularity in church music which I have witnessed in my lifetime has not been without its problems.  Winchester is one of the top cathedral choirs in the country.  Such a description comes with its own challenges.  What makes a choir good?  Is it that the style and quality of music inspires a quality of worship that is special and could act as an incentive to other churches aspiring to high standards, but lacking the endowments to meet the costs involved?  Having a ‘good’ choir could be a judgement based purely on technical and aesthetic factors.  It need have nothing to do with God or the reality of worship.  Finding out where is the meaning of excellence in terms of the choir achievements, is likely to be a constant cause of tension between clergy and the musicians who work for the institution.

A second point of tension, that will apply to every choral foundation in the country, is the rise of ‘popular’ Christian music.  For the majority of Christians, Christian music is found in what is known as worship songs.  Without expressing a value judgement on this style of Christian music, one has to say that such music emerges from a very different culture from the one in which cathedral musicians operate.  Church leaders working in cathedrals are acutely aware of the incompatible demands of the aficionados of choral mattins and those who prefer Graham Kendrick and Hillsong.  In a small way, I faced this tension in my parish and resolved it by allowing, as far as possible, both styles or cultures to co-exist.  The church choir and the music group appeared at different services and a kind of peace prevailed.  Whether the current tensions at Winchester have anything to do with these divergent styles or cultures of church music I have no inside knowledge, but the existence of such contrasting styles remains a very large elephant in the room called Christian worship.  It cannot be expelled easily.   In a centre like Winchester Cathedral where traditional cathedral music has reigned for literally centuries, it is hard to imagine that worship songs ever get an easy welcome, if at all.  But, if this is the only genre of Christian music known by a segment of the congregation, then it will be hard for the leaders to ignore it without causing upset and unhappiness.

In this piece I am suggesting that church music of all kinds is likely to draw into itself many of the other divisions and unspoken conflicts that already exist in the church.  Deep irreconcilable differences exist over the LGBT issue, climate change as well as theological attitudes to Scripture.  It is possible to distinguish a ‘liberal’ approach from a ‘conservative’ one, and, maybe, the two sides can have a discussion with a measure of civility.  When it comes to divisions over what church music is the preferred option, there are sometimes even deeper underlying issues, matters of taste, culture and social class.  These are difficult to address without sounding elitist.  I am well aware that my wanting to listen to Tallis’ Lamentations as part of my observance of Holy Week will not be understood by many sincere Christian people.  A greater number might fill a cathedral nave to listen to the Matthew Passion in Holy Week, but we are still facing the fact of widely divergent tastes in music among Christian people.  Somewhere in the unhappiness that has arisen in Winchester are, I believe, these cultural and aesthetic issues that arise when two incompatible musical styles are brought in close juxtaposition and found to be totally alien to each other.  Resolution of such cultural divergences will require a wisdom far greater than anything I see on offer in the Church today.

In writing this piece I am prepared to accept that the issues addressed by the Review and the resignation of the musical Director may have absolutely nothing to do with the clash of discordant musical cultures that we see in the wider church.  If I am wrong, this does not render all my comments of no value.  The tension between popular and classical church music is a live issue in many places and, sometimes, it can be said to exist as open warfare.   It is one of the ironies of today that one area of growth in church life at present is in an appreciation for the meditative, even contemplative style of BCP choral evensong.  It is for others to explain the appeal of the Psalms sung to Anglican chant, which also allows a renewed appreciation of the English language as spoken five centuries ago.  In a century’s time, it will become obvious which style has stood the test of time.  I suspect we all have our preferred guess.

About Stephen Parsons

Stephen is a retired Anglican priest living at present in Cumbria. He has taken a special interest in the issues around health and healing in the Church but also when the Church is a place of harm and abuse. He has published books on both these issues and is at present particularly interested in understanding how power works at every level in the Church. He is always interested in making contact with others who are concerned with these issues.

32 thoughts on “Winchester Episcopal Review, Some Reflections on Church Music and Culture

  1. I’m afraid that the very good “old fashioned” style of music has the. side effect of people’s just turning up for the Sunday morning concert. And then they stay away in droves when the choir is on holiday. At least the battle to persuade some people that God does not find women’s and girls’ voices offensive is more or less won. Although many traditional music fans don’t care for “formed” women’s voices. So women have to sing like boys! Does the term “the Chapter” mean the clergy team, I wonder? Or the legal entity, which includes the laity, who would outnumber the clergy.

  2. Q: What’s the difference between a choir leader and a terrorist?
    A: you can negotiate with a terrorist.

    I was involved in church music all my life, having grown up in a musical family and then sung in choirs at school and church. Whichever genre you rest on, you will probably encounter elitism and snobbery. If lucky, you will meet gifted and humble musicians too, people who bring us much joy in what they do, and the way in which they conduct themselves.

    I have the dubious honour of having been steeped initially in ancient and complex worship, in then in more recent decades sung mainly backing vocals in contemporary church bands, using a gift of harmony.

    Music affects us. Very few people are ambivalent about it, and the divide which Stephen alludes too, is often put into place to keep the poles apart. Rarely are these divisions at all Christian in nature.

    Even within a distinct genre, be it Worship Central or Baroque, there is frequent discord. Technical ability is directly correlated with such discomfort. The most able frequently experience the most pain when the notes are not quite right, for example. It’s the price of gifting.

    Age and gender are additional stressors, as EA points out. Usually it’s youth obsessed, particularly if you’re good looking, but not always.

    Are we able to play nicely together? That would perhaps depend on how redeemed we are.

    1. I’m going to be rude! I don’t have perfect pitch. People who do can be a bit of a pain! We all have to be grown up about learning to get along. Perfect pitch is far from being a necessity.

      1. Perfect pitch is a.rare gift. I wonder whether you really mean ‘singing in tune’? Not too below the belt, I hope, but I noticed the present Precentor of Winchester using a tuning fork when intoning the versicles (“Lord open Thou our lips” etc.) and he did so for all of them.

        There are mixed adult Cathedral choirs in the C of E, but I accept that they are the exception rather than the rule. I know of several cathedrals where a woman has joined ‘the back row’ men, doubtless singing alto. I don’t know the present situation in these places, but they were Chester, Norwich, York and Lincoln. There are very accomplished girls’ choirs at Salisbury (where they were pioneered), Lincoln and, indeed, Winchester.

        1. No, I didn’t. Our precentor uses a tuning fork, too. People who have perfect pitch can be very rude about those who don’t, and it’s not necessary in order to be able to sing in tune. And the women in a mixed choir may be very good, but they may sing like boys nevertheless. I love a good Cathedral choir, but you do have to watch out for any prejudice that comes with it. And the tendency for it to.attract music fans who aren’t there to worship. That’s good too in a way, but it can tilt the balance of what a congregation wants. And that affects the pressure put on the clergy. The problem with worship songs is, imho, that the theology may be suitably earnest, but the quality of the music and song writing is rubbish! If they were good, people wouldn’t object to them!

          1. ‘Worship songs’ are not all rubbish. Some have stood the test of time and are still being sung 50 years after they were written. Others, like ‘Be still, for the presence of the Lord’, became instant and much-loved classics.

            I like a bit of everything, myself. David Watson, with music leader Andrew Maries, pioneered this approach at St. Michael-le-Belfrey in the early 70s. Services would include both traditional hymns and modern worship songs, and sometimes classical music. There were many talented musicians and writers at St Michael’s, and a lot of very good songs were produced there.

        2. “Girls choirs” Rowland? Do they have to be quarantined? Do they get sub-titled “the not as good” choir? Or the ” not really the proper” choir? If the girls are not allowed to sing in the proper choir, what does that say?

          1. I’m surprised as I assumed you knew about this. They are ‘proper’ full members of the choir and share the singing duties with the boys, approximately 50/50. Only the men (lay clerks at Winchester) are the constants and they sing some services alone. This is all pretty standard at all the C of E cathedrals with a girls’ choir. They aren’t quarantined but usually have their own choirmistress, who is one of the organists’ team, and, of course, there are appropriate safeguarding arrangements as they are also residents.

            1. Indeed, and becoming more common that they are treated no differently to the boys and that includes getting equal time with the DoM rather than just being led by an assistant (this is the case at my son’s cathedral). Of course they usually have different singing teachers and keeping the boys and girls separate remains a good idea simply because I fear the boys would simply die out as seems to be the way in mixed secular children’s choirs (that largely end up being girl’s choirs with the odd boy) and there goes your tenor and bass lay clerks of the future.

            2. I did know, and that’s what I’m objecting to! Exactly what you describe. A mixed choir is treated as an abomination! Sorry, I think that’s wrong.

              1. A mixed choir stops boys singing. It is as simple as that. We need boys to sing and that means they need their own space to do so.

      2. “Steve’s Test” is: “is it pleasant?”

        One person’s soaring aria can be another’s pneumatic drill of course, and our certainty over our own musical appreciation, must have consideration for others who hear differently.

        Never mind perfect pitch, one lad busking on Guildford’s High Street, appeared to have no pitch at all. The only feedback he would get would be the lack of income from his efforts. Although I noted that some would approach and encourage him, if not in a pecuniary way.

        Others are far more successful, and on a Saturday you can take your pick from a pretty electric violin (dangerous in the wrong hands) playing pop classics, or the mellifluous tones of an aging rocker, or from one of the many Academy of Contemporary Music debutants.

        Buskers come and go, but the popular and recurring ones, some of which have gone contactless, play music or sing songs, or both, which are generally popular, not necessarily what they would like to perform. This is always a compromise for the musically gifted.

        To lead worship is to think of the other. If no one is following, you’re not leading.

        1. “To lead worship is to think of the other. If no one is following, you’re not leading.” Yes, and that’s true both for a classical choir which is only concentrating on its performance and for a worship band whose members get so carried away that they forget why they’re there. Many years ago I used to attend a Nonconformist church which had two organists (no choir). One was very good, the other merely competent – but it was he who was better at listening to and leading the congregation in the hymns.

  3. ‘It was felt that Chapter simply did not understand the musical side of the Cathedral’.

    Surely the Precentor represents, at least in part, the musical side of the Cathedral?

    The summary of the review tends to put the role of the Precentor in at least a neutral light. From what I know of the situation, the Precentor was a significant part of the problem. Managerial and domineering, and seeming to lack respect for the music or musical traditions of the Cathedral. The review says that the plan for the Cathedral music, led by the Precentor, was good, but was not consulted upon or communicated well, i.e. he tried to impose it without negotiation.

    The Precentor has seemed to avoid the limelight in this situation, although apparently his spouse has a senior CofE role, so that may be why he is well-protected. However I understand he is currently on gardening leave. Perhaps, given the CofE’s previous behaviour in similar matters, he will be shipped of to some unfortunate diocese as their suffragen or diocesan. Or perhaps he will get training in how to relate to others with empathy.

  4. “Follow the Master, not the pastor” might help us avoid endless Cathedral or Church arguments. I have tried BCP traditionalism and charismatic-evangelicalism. With the former, I questioned if the ritual was often dreary and dead. The latter could degenerate into ‘boiled over milk’, with pursuit of very odd stuff. Some leaders leant close to gay conversion therapy, and had special “gay meetings”, which sounded like ghetto exclusion really. Others were young earth creationists and literalists. There was what now feels like a fake tolerance, where anyone not holding to their literalism was excluded. There were cliques, who fixed up things for friends or family, and there was an incestuous aura, so that the whole “Church family” were to contribute money, but a different family or family friends group seemed to reap the benefit. I also became wary about claims of healing, possibly where only trivial or psychosomatic illness was present. I have largely given up on BCP and charismatic-evangelical religion. A midweek prayer lunch, with a very small group of connected believers, is much better than pockets getting emptied for a Sunday pantomime.

  5. I of course recognise the tension Stephen describes between different musical traditions in the church but I strongly doubt that this is what is behind the sad events at Winchester. From what I have heard it is a far more mundane case of power politics between clergy and music staff than any idea that the congregation of Winchester is yearning for more Graham Kendrick. If there is not a good and sympathetic relationship between Canon Precentor and the music staff then things will not work out well.

    I was brought up in the choral tradition (not in cathedral or collegiate chapel) and my son is currently a cathedral chorister (not in Winchester) so I am clearly biased here but I think that the cultural value of our church music is important. The questions of “why are you a Christian?” and “why are you an Anglican?” are different, the latter having much more to do with cultural factors than the former in my view. Yes, Christian Worship songs are well known but they are also to be found in many protestant churches around the country whereas the Anglican choral tradition is uniquely Anglican and that should have value for us.

    We also must remember that Kendrick and Hillsong is not the music of young Christians, it is the music of those in their late middle-age and so we should be careful of not making the mistake in assuming young Christians are looking for the music of their parents. Offering genuine liturgy rooted in tradition is surprisingly popular among younger generations, just ask our Roman Catholic friends!

  6. Thank you, Stephen, for this attempt to navigate complex terrain. As you readily acknowledge, the review gives little detail and that inevitably leads to a degree of speculation.

    As someone with a Winchester base, until very recently, I know some of the personalities and the narrative behind the summary. I can also affirm (and entirely respect) what the Bishop says about the need to protect peoples’ confidentiality in giving (what can only have been) painful evidence to the review. I think you are coming close to the nub of the issue when you highlight the degree to which the Chapter ‘simply did not understand the musical side of the Cathedral.’ That the Precentor appears not to have been adequately able to advocate for the music foundation in Chapter (nor communicate effectively to keep Chapter colleagues appraised of developments) is, fundamentally, an episcopal failing. You should not appoint someone as Precentor of any Cathedral who has no direct experience of the pressures and challenges of standing in front of a professional choir, day after day, with the high expectation that you will consistently deliver excellence – and especially not if the person from whom this is expected appears to be systematically diminished by those to whom s/he is accountable as a line manager. Great ideas for development/reform/inclusion are one thing. Having some grasp of the delicate ecology of a choral foundation, and understanding the practical/professional/strategic consequences of how those ideas are implemented is an entirely different matter. Certainly, it should be something that is the focus of the widest possible consultation, involving all stakeholders.

    Where I do want to take issue with your more general reflection is your observation that ‘having a “good” choir could be a judgement based purely on technical and aesthetic factors. It need have nothing to do with God or the reality of worship’ and how this ‘is likely to be a constant cause of tension between clergy and the musicians who work for the institution.’

    This is, sadly, a persistent trope when some clergy talk about choirs in churches & cathedrals. There is a pervasive assumption that the people involved are not really there to worship, but are interested only in the music as a purely cultural/aesthetic issue. I think that is a huge assumption – and is symptomatic of a tendency to ‘peer into…souls’ in a way that is (at best) glib. My own experience of working closely with choral foundations in the past is that those involved have a strong sense of vocation and, like anyone else in church, are at different stages on a journey. When I think of most organists and directors of music, they are largely involved in work of primary mission, especially when you consider how the formational character of the liturgy (with its exposure to the scriptures and enabling people in choirs to have a major stake in the leading of worship) has been fruitful in shaping peoples’ discipleship from an early age and into the future. I only need to think of the energetic and larger-than-life choirmaster who did that for me. Would we ever question the motives of members of monastic communities, whose daily worship takes place exclusively in quire, or question whether they are ‘real’ Christians? When you consider the growth being experienced by cathedrals, how the music provides people on the edges of church life with a route into the transcendent, speaks for them when words fail, and is a major underpinning of the ability of cathedrals to offer a humane and intelligent account of the Christian faith, I can only wonder whether those cathedral clergy that ‘don’t get’ what the music is there to do have a very myopic and lightweight understanding of mission and the character of the Church.

  7. There is another buried question here, possibly much closer to the surface than is comfortable. Benedictine and Anabaptist spirituality have a magnetic modern appeal. The Cathedral age is potentially coming to an end. Our Lord fixed up water baptism, and holy communion using bread with wine. A water tap, plus a heel end of sherry and a slice or two of bread, mean that celebrating the sacraments should not cost millions: it was never intended to.

    1. What I think we can safely say is that, along with cathedrals, charismatic evangelical churches (with their professional standard musicians) are drawing people in equal numbers. They both offer an ‘experience’ and appeal to different consituencies. On the European continent, where the choral terrain is very different to England, monastic communities are exercising a similar pull. Again, it’s about the quality of what’s being offered and the dimension of difference.

      1. Interesting sentiments! ‘Miserere’ used to grab me as a busy young professional , even while hurtling down the M6 years at great pace in the early 1990’s. As a sceptic at the time, it always left me asking if it pointed to something more, like glancing up at the night stars or lifting a rock on a rich trout stream and seeing various amazing grubs. Christian pop can also be a good listen on the car radio. But you sometimes begin to ask if the beat at times bears a resemblance to rave music, or those catchy tunes favoured by advertisers. I am puzzled at the absolute obsession with teenage and youth evangelism. At its very best people are drawn to lives of active commitment. But there can be cases where the ‘switch’ to belief fizzles out, and observers ask if manipulation and emotion were to the fore.

  8. I’m a bit intrigued that cathedral music somehow lived in a rarefied place prior to the 1960s, kept away from the general culture. What of the choral movement of the nineteenth century, which was itself an impetus to reforming cathedral music, especially in the wake of John Stainer’s work at St Paul’s Cathedral, London? Cathedral music might have had a particular niche in 1950s and 60s, and it is also the case that there was widespread choral education in schools across the British education system. Churches in that era seem to have had flourishing choirs, and the RSCM was pioneering choral education to enable higher attainments of repertoire and quality of performance. Many church plants in working class areas included fairly substantial efforts at music to elevate the tastes of the local people. One of the effects of post-1960s elitism was the assumption that this was a form of cultural imperialism that had no place being given to the lower classes.
    A couple of things are worth considering here.
    First, worship bands don’t tend to be easy to join. You really can only have one drummer, and there’s a limit to the number of guitars a sound system will handle. It’s very rare to have more than three singers. As an exercise of group music-making, worship bands are highly reified and much harder to join than a traditional choir. They don’t do music education. One could fairly call these groups exclusive and elitist, even compared to a choir with stringent auditions. The choir will always have opportunities for people to join.
    Second, genre and style are largely irrelevant. I find discussions about music preference somewhere between risible and irritating. It only serves to reinforce people’s prejudices. There are more important questions. What sort of theological literacy does the music support? Or does it promote theological illiteracy? Musicians who work in the whole diversity of musical style have a broader approach to major theological questions such as theories of atonement. A good amount of well-known contemporary worship music reinforces and limits the options to a fairly repellant version of penal substitution (eg, “In Christ alone” or “There is a redeemer”). The thinness of these texts and the fairly banal nature of the accompanying melodies doesn’t really do much to open a new vista on any big question. The very notion that there are other models of atonement of far greater antiquity, possessing greater Biblical support, and that the Church has never settled on a single doctrine, is completely absent from a lot of popular contemporary worship songs. This surely promotes theological illiteracy. Which seems to be rather counterproductive to the whole question of mission and spreading the good Word.

    1. I agree about the exclusivity of worship bands. And if those featured on ‘Songs of Praise’ are anything to go by, one or two soloists are becoming increasingly dominant over the congregation, rather than giving the congregation a lead.

      ‘There Is A Redeemer’ is copyright 1982, so not really contemporary. Nor does it communicate a ‘repellant version of substitutionary atonement’; ‘for sinners slain’ is pretty general. I like its succinct summary of the work of the Trinity in our lives. There’s a place for simplicity of words and music. Simplicity can be profound. Contrast that with Wimber’s ‘I Believe in Jesus’: ‘I believe he died and rose again, I believe he paid for us all…here with the power to heal now….’ Now that is puerile – all that apparently matters is that I get healed, immediately. Nothing about the ongoing work of the Spirit in our lives in this song.

      I have to admit, though, that parts of ‘In Christ Alone’ make me wince. ‘And on the cross as Jesus died, The wrath of God was satisfied’ – ugh. That really is a repellant version of penal substitution.

      1. Must admit, Janet, that I have doubts about ‘the wrath of God was satisfied’ too, yet my NIV uses that phrase in at least one of the Pauline epistles. “There is a Redeemer” on the other hand, is a personal favourite. And our salvation does indeed rest ‘on Christ alone, our cornerstone’, after all.

        Yes, I struggle. ‘Substitutionary atonement’ – Christ died for MY sins, for which I deserve hell – is really the only form of the doctrine I’ve ever heard in 50+ years as an evangelical believer. And the bottom line, in one form, is that it is true. It depends on how bluntly it is put. In so far as I know, I’ve never heard a sermon on the theme of Christ’s death being the satisfaction of God’s demands, as a form of atonement. That, which I found out about on Wikipedia, seems equally valid – but I’ve yet to find a suitable book to explain it.

        On a musical bent, I openly confess to having no musical skills, save knowing how to turn a radio on, at all. And that makes a lot of the modern worship songs , which really need trained musicians to sing properly, very difficult to sing. Indeed, I’ve given up with many of the current crop we use at my church and quietly repeat the words to myself – its better than trying to twist my mouth around some of them and making a mess of it. Give me simple, straightforward words and tunes (preferably from Welsh or Celtic music) any day – but that won’t suit everybody and we have to agree to find a balanced mixture.

        Like everything else, there’s a place for beautifully trained choral worship in church, and there’s a place for light worship songs as well; as someone said above, the degree to which we’ve been redeemed and died to our own personal likes and prejudices makes a very big difference.

      2. The ‘debt-sickness-wrath’ metaphor issue is an old chestnut. Was it C S Lewis who emphasised free choice on this, in terms of what makes sense to a person? To see the atonement paying a debt is one option. To see it as a healing , from the sickness of sin, is another. I can understand where you are coming from about the anger of God, if that last legal metaphor is taken. But the ‘anger’ (irritation, sadness) of God at sin, is not akin to an abusive partner coming back from the pub and wrecking the house. Anger can possibly be used as a metaphor if it is carefully qualified. But the healing metaphor perhaps has gigantic merits when we speak of sin and the Cross.

        1. Well, of course God’s righteous and just anger is light years away from the sort of human sin you mention – it has to be. I was re-reading Romans 1 to 5 this morning, and was struck by how often Paul mentions God’s wrath against sin in just those five chapters. He certainly doesn’t leave any of us, even the best of us, in any doubt as to where we stand with God. (I’m choosing to ignore his comments therein on homosexuality – that can of worms can stay closed for the present. )

          This is part of the problem with our limited language – church culture and human experience both condition us to negative connotations of the word ‘anger’, so we’re encouraged to avoid exercising it. It certainly isn’t easy.

          How do you express God’s views when we, particularly his chosen ones, insist on going our own way? Does he get angry with us? Jesus certainly lost his rag with his followers more than once, never mind with his enemies. Its hard to judge how God the Father feels when we can only use our own experiences as a yardstick.

          Christ, thank God, ‘gave himself for our healing, laid down his life that we might be free’. And at the moment I’m blundering around, trying to find another way of seeing the cross and salvation besides the penal one. Someone once said to me that the PSA understanding would have had a lot of meaning to people living under Roman law, which I appreciate. But, to misquote Buzz Lightyear, we’re not living under Roman law now, are we? The cross, and Christ’s atonement have to stay central and personal to the whole issue though; its a very deep issue to discuss in a small space!

          1. They talked about Barry John, the legendary Welsh fly-half, being able to glide past tacklers in a telephone box sized space. The crowds who lined the terraces had no doubt about this, magical and incredible as it was. What exact genes, muscles and balance, or environment and upbringing produced this ability, is ultimately a mystery. There is something incredibly positive about looking at Isaiah 53 with the sentiments of Isaiah 55 vs 8-9. Our enlightenment influenced age is obsessed with equations and Maths. But the reality of the Easter resurrection defies neat explanation.

            1. Indeed. In fact it defies any form of rational explanation at all. Greeks (ie modern humanity) seek wisdom – but the wisdom of the cross is apparent foolishness to them. As M R James said, don’t probe too closely into the mechanics of a miracle.

              1. Cars, taps, domestic heating systems, computers, printers, mobile phones, electric, aeroplanes-do we use them without fully understanding how they work? The mystery of Easter does not nullify the plain reality of evil, and also the all too real biblical invitation to escape it.

  9. “One is that the music found formerly only in cathedrals and a cluster of Oxbridge chapels has spread out widely from this narrow base.”

    In my experience (now >7,000 parish churches) this is not really the case. There are a tiny number of parish churches, often in affluent dormitory suburbs, where this does apply, but parish choirs are very much the exception rather than the rule: the very occasional swallow does not make a summer. The closure of St Michael’s College, Tenbury in 1985 and the abandonment of Addington Palace by the RSCM in 1996 (which now squats on Sarum College) were indicative of the tremendous decline in the parish choral tradition. The parish system as a whole is now so attenuated and wasted that a great many of the rural churches where I now attend services (insofar as they have any services at all) rely on a CD player as there will be no organist. Where I think this statement is true is with respect to the revival of early music (much of which is, of course, sacred music) since the early 20th century, initially courtesy of Robert Donington, Thomas Goff, Thurston Dart, etc., and latterly by Alfred Deller (who would have been a little before your time at Canterbury), Mary Remnant, Christopher Hogwood, David Munrow, Trevor Pinnock, etc.

    If anything, the early music revival is continuing: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/early-music-in-the-21st-century-9780197683064?cc=gb&lang=en&#. However, its impact upon worship has been very slight, and it has arguably sharpened the tendency for certain cathedral and collegiate services to become de facto liturgical concerts. In this context it is perhaps not without significance that one of the ‘homes’ of this movement are in a redundant church, St Margaret’s Walmgate in York or in places like All Saints Boughton Aluph, which has only a few very scantily attended summer services, and was effectively saved from closure by the early music season established there by Deller, who is buried in its churchyard.

  10. Whether I simply wasn’t able to do more than one thing at a time (likely) or not, but in my early years I didn’t care much about the words, it was much more about liking a catchy tune.

    Indeed it’s quite possible to enjoy classical music, for example, having no idea what the words mean, particularly if they’re in say German or Latin, which they frequently were.

    “In Christ Alone” has been successful in being accepted into a sort of modern slightly conservative hymnody. Its success is partly because of its easterish words, enabling a song set to be quickly populated, or for memorial services/weddings. How often do we actually study the words closely, as Janet does?

    My desire for a catchy tune, was superseded by enjoying more complexity in the notes, a desire not universally shared in congregations. But as I trained in different genres, a great pianist showed me how he looked ahead at the words of the next verse to inform how he might play it. I started to do the same thing, but vocally. When you look at the lyrics, some of them are indeed unfortunate, either being facile or something I might positively disagree with.

    Stuart Townend’s song is hymn-like. Musically it satisfies those who prefer to keep emotions locked in, hence its popularity with conservatives, but also “bursting forth” moments that can allow expression in worship, if this is allowed. It also allows us to say we have modern music, although even this is getting on a bit, even if we are happily ignoring everything else.

    As an aside, these days I wouldn’t join anything without women in it.

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