Cathedral Choral Evensong is essentially a service of reflection.
We welcome you to share with us in a service that has been offered continuously for nearly a thousand years. Cathedrals with a great choral tradition draw upon a rich inheritance of music, much of it sung by the choir alone. In the Anglican tradition this music finds its natural setting in the ancient office of Evensong, a combination of the medieval offices of Vespers and Compline found in the Book of Common Prayer. Here beauty in language and music can speak to us of God in a rich and diverse way. Within this hallowed space you may forget the ceaseless activity of daily life and be still.
The music is the traditional Anglican repertoire from the sixteenth century to the present day.
The roots of this service lie in the pattern of monastic worship, which began to develop as the Christian faith developed. This particular form of Evensong was created by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556) and is a fusion of the two monastic evening offices of Vespers and Compline.
Although liturgists have attempted to modernise the language of Cranmer’s 1662 Book of Common Prayer, many still prefer the majestic words of 1662.
Evensong is a celebration of the Incarnation of Jesus, the unique event in which God became a part of human life by becoming human.
In Choral Evensong words and music come together, each enriching the other, in order that our senses and our intellects, our hearts and our minds, may help us to draw closer to God who is above all, and through all and in all.
The Versicles and Responses are all taken from scripture.
The Psalms which are part of this service were also part of Jewish worship; individuals and the whole community placed their feelings and their experiences before God as they composed and sang them The Psalms were therefore part of the prayer of the community which looked forward to the coming of the Messiah, the community in which Jesus lived and worshipped.
The Magnificat is the Song of Mary, which she said joyfully as she became aware that she was to be the mother of Jesus: it was through her that God was to come into the world.
The Nunc Dimittis is the Song of Simeon: a man ‘righteous and devout’ recognises that the child Jesus was the Messiah, expected by the Jews, and come to be the salvation of all.
After an anthem drawn from the vast treasure trove of cathedral music, we kneel to address God and make our supplications, drawing on the encouragement of the promise that God will hear our prayers when “two or three are gathered together” in his name.
All people are welcome here! The Episcopal Church is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, some 79 million Christians who find their spiritual roots in the Catholic and Protestant traditions. Saint Boniface is located on Siesta Key in Sarasota, in the center of the Diocese of Southwest Florida.
CHORAL EVENSONG 
