On Mothering Sunday, the Choir of St Saviour's Church, Oxton, visited its 'mother' church - Holy Cross, at Woodchurch.
Visiting the mother church on Mothering Sunday - the fourth Sunday of Lent - is a centuries-old tradition and it was particularly good that choir members from Oxton could join their colleagues at Woodchurch to sing Choral Evensong.
Choir of St Saviour's Church, Oxton
"We were delighted to welcome the choir and members of the congregation from our daughter parish," said the Revd Christine Broad, Rector of Woodchurch. "In amongst all the commercial pressure to celebrate 'Mother's Day', it was good to share some quiet time for reflection and to revive an ancient practice of visiting the mother church during Lent."
The idea for the visit came during Revd Christine's recent induction as Rector of Woodchurch.
"We came to sing at that service, too," said Dr Glyn Mon Hughes, Director of Music at St Saviour's, "so we thought it could be appropriate to sing a celebratory Choral Evensong on Mothering Sunday. What was particularly striking was that we sang music by Purcell, who died almost 325 years ago. Parts of Holy Cross were already at least 500 years old when he was writing the music we performed - and that is a sobering thought. We are also grateful to the conductor for the evening, Mark Cleave, and the organist Gill Locke."