In perhaps the most exciting development so far, Jesus Guild can now announce that the E. M. Skinner pipe organ, Opus 782, has been purchased for the Georgetown Oratory. This is an instrument of the highest quality, made by one of America’s most famous organ builders. Furthermore, it is both tonally and mechanically intact, having been untouched since Mr. Skinner left it in 1929.

Ernest M. Skinner (1866-1960) first came to prominence in 1897 after the inauguration of the Hutchings instrument at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Boston. Later, Skinner traveled to England where he met, and became a collaborator with, Henry Willis III of the famous Willis & Sons organ manufacturer. Skinner and Willis shared with each other numerous innovations both in action and tonal design.

Another Englishman came in turn to become a collaborator with Skinner, and their joint effort produced arguably his greatest work: the Newberry Memorial Organ in Woolsey Hall of Yale University, which is Skinner’s Opus 722. Huddersfield-born G. Donald Harrison immigrated to the United States in 1927 and like Skinner, he had a certain flair for organ design.

Our new organ was designed just two years after the Woolsey Hall organ, and thus is the product of a particular dynamic era in organbuilding at the Skinner Organ Company. It was built for a Congregational Church in Madison, ME. Although small in number of ranks, its scaling is broad, because it was designed with the accompaniment of hymn-singing in mind. Its original home is of a similar size to the Oratory, but with the cleaner acoustic qualities of our church, the instrument will speak beautifully in its new home.

Work on the Oratory organ is being undertaken by A. Thompson-Allen Organ Company of New Haven, CT. This is the workshop of Nicholas Thompson-Allen, Curator of Organs at Yale University, and Joseph Dzeda, Assistant Curator. These skilled men are both experts in Skinner instruments. Mr. Thompson-Allen is the son of Aubrey Thompson-Allen, another Englishman, articled to Willis & Sons before coming to America at the invitation of G. Donald Harrison. Thompson-Allen has been looking after the organs at Yale, including the Newberry Memorial Organ, since 1952.

There are only two changes being made to the instrument, the first is the addition of a 4’ Principal stop, which comes from another Skinner instrument, and will be of great help in accompanying congregations. The second is a spectacular new case design, by Mr. Daniel Hancock of Greenleaf Organ Company, working in tandem with Thompson-Allen. A new organ case is necessary because Opus 782 was originally housed within a proscenium arch, with a facade of pipes filling the aperture. That would not have worked at the Oratory, where the organ will be situated on the West gallery.

The new organ is an essential component of our new choral foundation, being a real instrument as opposed to an electronic substitute. Real pipes produce sound in the same way as the human larynx, through air rushing over a reed, and thus produce such depth of tone that encourages participation in singing in a way speakers never can. We are incredibly excited to prepare for the installation of this exceptional instrument here at the Oratory and cannot wait to share more details with you.

Choral Evensong

One of the longest running, and most popular, shows on BBC Radio 3 is the weekly broadcast of ‘Choral Evensong’ from the many cathedrals, college chapels, and some parish churches, that maintain polyphonic singing. Every Wednesday at 4 PM at new episode is broadcast, live, on location.

But what is it about Choral Evensong that is so attractive? Amid the clear demographic decline in church attendance in much of continental Europe, an exception can be seen in the cathedrals and churches that maintain a choral foundation. Even the atheist scientist and philosopher, Richard Dawkins, admits to a certain nostalgia for Choral Evensong. There is undoubtedly something calming and timeless in allowing the recitation of the psalms to wash over you like a flood.

Evensong nowadays almost always refers to the liturgy for Evening Prayer in the Anglican Communion. It was the title selected by Archbishop Cranmer in his Book of Common Prayer for the Church of England, first published in 1549, and has become quintessentially linked to Anglican worship. However; the word is not Anglican.

Vespers from the Catholic Liturgy of the Hours was conventionally known as Evensong, in English, from before the Twelfth Century, and Catholics before the Reformation would have been accustomed to attending ‘Mass, Mattins and Evensong’ on Sundays in their parish churches.

What is so satisfying about Cranmer’s liturgy is its length: not too long, but not too short either. This comes from the fact that Anglican Evensong is in fact a combination of two offices: Vespers and Compline. It is sometimes claimed this was Cranmer’s innovation, but there seems to be no particular reason to credit him with it. The combination was well-known in the Sixteenth Century, largely for practical reasons the two offices were routinely combined into one - and still may be so.

Jesus Guild thinks it’s time to take a share of this Evensong heritage: there is no reason not to describe any recitation of choral Vespers, ‘Evensong’ in the English language. It would be both enriching and ecumenical to showcase what Catholic Evensong might look like. Thanks to Pope Benedict XVI’s groundbreaking invitation, Anglicanorum coetibus, even Cranmer’s prose may form part of a Catholic service. But that’s not what we mean: who's to say ‘Evensong’ has to be in English?

Epiphany Water

The initials C, M, and B represent the traditional names of the three Magi: Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, but it is sometimes also referred to as the petition: Christus manisonem benedicat (“May Christ bless [this] house”) - but don’t worry, you don’t have to choose. It can mean both. Happy Epiphanytide!