Macmillan on chant
To attract an audience of 300-plus on a cold and rainy midweek night for a lecture on the somewhat niche topic of the origins of western music in plainsong is an astonishing feat. But the draw this past week was Sir …
Easter reflections
As I read through the Triduum feedback forms, one sentence made me pause and caused my spirits to rise. Ever since the end of lockdown, when I was asked to lead the music and aspects of the liturgy for the Paschal Triduum, I have been giving these forms to those...
Music for Easter night
This anthology, which is the first commercial recording the choir has made since Simon Johnson became Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral in September 2021, continues a practice inaugurated by his
Lay preaching
A symposium of preachers and theologians hosted by the Aquinas Institute of Theology in St Louis USA in March 2024, has made a formal submission to the Synod seeking a change in canon law to allow suitably qualified lay people to preach at Mass. The Church’s law...
Believing not belonging
This research paper from the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology, Cambridge was commissioned by the Diocese of Brentwood and explores the reasons Catholics have become alienated from the Church. In the summer of 2023, Bishop Alan Williams sm issued a personal...