One thing you can say for the Anglican church, it does a good procession. So I was expecting the best, back in February, when I arrived at Chichester Cathedral with an invitation to the Installation of the new Dean of Chichester, Stephen John Waine. En route to my seat (one of the best in the house, I must say, in the coveted pink ticket area in the Choir) I spotted male members of clergy wandering the cloisters in various phases of enrobement, while the cathedral café washroom was full of female members of clergy checking their tights and lipstick. We Brits will never provide much competition for the instinctive street fashionistas of say, France or Italy, but we do ceremony and dressing-up awfully well. Waves of Deans, Bishops, Deacons, Canons, Vergers and Ecumenical Partners passed my seat – managing to sport some frankly eccentric items of dress with just the right combination of dignity and nonchalance.
I should explain, though, that I was there for a fashion report, but to hear a premiere of a work by my good friend and teacher Frederick Stocken – a setting of The Prayer of St Richard of Chichester for the choir, specially commissioned for this service. St Richard may not be familiar to you, but his words will be.
Frederick’s reflective setting has the same profound simplicity as the words of the prayer it serves, and formed a fitting moment of stillness before the prayers of intercession.
The words of the prayer are written on a statue of St Richard* outside the west door of the Cathedral. Frederick said: “I noticed that the words Day by Day which end the prayer are not on the inscription – Day by Day seems to appear everywhere else I’ve seen it. I was wondering if it is a bit like the added doxology to the Lord’s Prayer: For thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory, which was added by Protestants later on and doesn’t appear in the Bible.”
“The choir sang the piece in a very flexible manner, which was just what I wanted.”
The Prayer of St Richard of Chichester by Frederick Stocken is for unaccompanied SATB choir and lasts about three minutes. It has just been published by Banks Music Publications, and the link to the catalogue is here: Prayer of St Richard of Chichester.
The Choir of Chichester Cathedral was conducted by Charles Harrison, Organist and Master of the Choristers. You can follow Charles on Twitter @NotesTremendous
*People have commented that this statue looks very like the current Bishop, and during the service we did see a similarity.
