Join The Revd Steve Morris, Associate Priest of St Bride's, and St Bride's Choir for this week's reflection in words and music.

Our reflection for the second Sunday in Advent opens with the words of the Venerable Bede in a paraphrased setting of the text by Andrew Carter in his anthem "A maiden most gentle." The French melody and sparkling organ accompaniment captures the simplicity of the Christmas scene with answering upper and lower voice verses which unite in the words "Ave Maria."

The reading this week recounts John the Baptist's foretelling of the coming of Christ who will baptise not with water, but with the Holy Spirit. Steve reflects on this intriguing character.

We close with the Advent hymn "Come, thou long expected Jesus" by perhaps the greatest hymn writer, Charles Wesley.

A new episode of this online act of worship is released every Sunday morning.

Information about our weekly Sunday services in St Bride's of Choral Eucharist at 11am (https://www.stbrides.com/worship-music/worship/regular-services/choral-eucharist/) and Choral Evensong at 5:30pm (https://www.stbrides.com/worship-music/worship/regular-services/choral-evensong/) can be found on the website.

Find out what's happening at St Bride's at https://www.stbrides.com/whats-on

If you enjoy listening, please leave a comment below or subscribe to our channel. It is great to get your feedback.

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We are hugely grateful for people's generosity which we wholly rely on to continue our work, maintain our wonderful architectural heritage and support world-class music-making. If you would like to make a donation, you can do so at https://www.justgiving.com/stbrideschurchfleetstreet

Join The Revd Canon Dr Alison Joyce, Rector of St Bride's, and St Bride's Choir for this week's reflection in words and music.

This week's reflection opens with a setting of the "Benedicite, omnia opera" – the great song of praise and blessing for all of creation that we traditionally sing in Advent. It is composed by the English cathedral organist and choirmaster, Robert Ashfield, who served as organist and master of the choristers at Southwell Minster then Rochester Cathedral.

Today is Advent Sunday which marks the beginning of the season of Advent. Alison reminds us in her reflection that it is a season when we are encouraged to engage with the dark realities of our world so that we can truly value the light that comes into the world at Christmas and recognise our deep need for it.

We close with the seasonal hymn "Lo! He comes with clouds descending" by the great hymnist Charles Wesley, set to the famous tune, Helmsley.

Information about our weekly Sunday services in St Bride's of Choral Eucharist at 11am (https://www.stbrides.com/worship-music/worship/regular-services/choral-eucharist/) and Choral Evensong at 5:30pm (https://www.stbrides.com/worship-music/worship/regular-services/choral-evensong/) can be found on the website.

Find out what's happening at St Bride's at https://www.stbrides.com/whats-on

If you enjoy listening, please leave a comment below or subscribe to our channel. It is great to get your feedback.

SUPPORT ST BRIDE'S

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We are hugely grateful for people's generosity which we wholly rely on to continue our work, maintain our wonderful architectural heritage and support world-class music-making. People are often surprised to learn that St Bride's receives no external funding.

If you would like to make a donation, you can do so at https://www.justgiving.com/stbrideschurchfleetstreet

Join The Revd Dr Jeff Lake, Associate Priest of St Bride's, and St Bride's Choir for this week's reflection in words and music.

Today is the feast of Christ the King which brings to an end the church's year as we proclaim Christ enthroned in heaven as sovereign king over all creation. The cycle then begins anew with Advent – that season of expectation and preparation for Christmas and the birth of Christ as a helpless baby, born to save us all.

St Bride's Choir opens this reflection with Monteverdi's moving devotional motet "Christus, adoramus te" – "Christ, we worship and bless thee, because by thy holy Cross thou hast redeemed the world."

After the Gospel reading from Luke, our associate priest Jeff considers the growing relevance the feast of Christ the King has had for him over time especially in an age when national power is increasingly elevated above moral responsibility.

We end with one of our most popular hymns "Glorious things of thee are spoken" to the rousing tune, Abbot's Leigh. The text is by John Newton whose notorious early years included being captain of a slave ship; after his conversion he became an ardent abolitionist in association with William Wilberforce.

Information about our weekly Sunday services in St Bride's of Choral Eucharist at 11am (https://www.stbrides.com/worship-music/worship/regular-services/choral-eucharist/) and Choral Evensong at 5:30pm (https://www.stbrides.com/worship-music/worship/regular-services/choral-evensong/) can be found on the website.

Find out what's happening at St Bride's at https://www.stbrides.com/whats-on

If you enjoy listening, please leave a comment below or subscribe to our channel. It is great to get your feedback.

SUPPORT ST BRIDE'S

==================

We are hugely grateful for people's generosity which we wholly rely on to continue our work, maintain our wonderful architectural heritage and support world-class music-making. People are often surprised to learn that St Bride's receives no external funding.

If you would like to make a donation, you can do so at https://www.justgiving.com/stbrideschurchfleetstreet

Join The Revd Canon Dr Alison Joyce, Rector of St Bride's, and St Bride's Choir for this week's reflection in words and music.

Stanford's most dramatic anthem – For lo, I raise up – opens this week's reflection. Written at the outbreak of the First World War, it sets Habakkuk’s Old Testament prophecies, beginning with a depiction of the violence and destruction of war but ending with a message of hope, deliverance and the power of faith.

The church's yearly pattern of observances and celebrations is approaching its end with the feast of Christ the King towards the end of this month when we triumphantly proclaim the universal sovereignty of Christ as supreme authority over all creation whose ultimate triumph lies at the end of time.

In today's reading St Luke's gospel, Jesus foretells of that end and his second coming and Alison reflects on these challenging words.

We end with the seasonal hymn "King of glory, king of peace" by the devotional poet and priest, George Herbert.

We close with the patriotic hymn "I vow to thee my country" published in 1921 after the Great War finally ended. The tune, by Holst, is an adaptation from his Planets Suite and sets a two stanza poem by Cecil Spring Rice, who served as British Ambassador to the United States during the war.

Information about our weekly Sunday services in St Bride's of Choral Eucharist at 11am (https://www.stbrides.com/worship-music/worship/regular-services/choral-eucharist/) and Choral Evensong at 5:30pm (https://www.stbrides.com/worship-music/worship/regular-services/choral-evensong/) can be found on the website.

Find out what's happening at St Bride's at https://www.stbrides.com/whats-on

If you enjoy listening, please leave a comment below or subscribe to our channel. It is great to get your feedback.

SUPPORT ST BRIDE'S

==================

We are hugely grateful for people's generosity which we wholly rely on to continue our work, maintain our wonderful architectural heritage and support world-class music-making. People are often surprised to learn that St Bride's receives no external funding.

If you would like to make a donation, you can do so at https://www.justgiving.com/stbrideschurchfleetstreet

Join The Revd Canon Dr Alison Joyce, Rector of St Bride's, and St Bride's Choir for this week's reflection in words and music.

This week we mark Remembrance Sunday when we as we gather, along with others across the nations, to pay tribute to those who lost their lives fighting for peace. In church, St Bride's Choir & Orchestra will perform Duruflé's Requiem as a mass for the fallen and this reflection opens with the first movement of that piece.

Our reading is the famous passage from St John's Gospel proclaiming the commandment to "love one another as I have loved you" and its particularly poignant assertion at this time that "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

Alison then reflects on these themes of love, sacrifice and remembrance — from Christ’s command to love one another to wartime memory and hope.

We close with the patriotic hymn "I vow to thee my country" published in 1921 after the Great War finally ended. The tune, by Holst, is an adaptation from his Planets Suite and sets a two stanza poem by Cecil Spring Rice, who served as British Ambassador to the United States during the war.

Information about our weekly Sunday services in St Bride's of Choral Eucharist at 11am (https://www.stbrides.com/worship-music/worship/regular-services/choral-eucharist/) and Choral Evensong at 5:30pm (https://www.stbrides.com/worship-music/worship/regular-services/choral-evensong/) can be found on the website.

Find out what's happening at St Bride's at https://www.stbrides.com/whats-on

If you enjoy listening, please leave a comment below or subscribe to our channel. It is great to get your feedback.

SUPPORT ST BRIDE'S

==================

We are hugely grateful for people's generosity which we wholly rely on to continue our work, maintain our wonderful architectural heritage and support world-class music-making. People are often surprised to learn that St Bride's receives no external funding.

If you would like to make a donation, you can do so at https://www.justgiving.com/stbrideschurchfleetstreet

Join The Revd Canon Dr Alison Joyce, Rector of St Bride's, and St Bride's Choir for this week's reflection in words and music.

The choir begins this week's reflection singing verses from Psalm 84 – "O how amiable are thy dwellings : thou Lord of hosts!" – to a chant by the English composer Sir Edward Bairstow. Bairstow was very much wedded to his dwelling place of Yorkshire, the county of his birth and where he served as Organist of York Minster for several decades until his death. He even turned down an offer to become Organist at Westminster Abbey and said of the suggestion that he follow a fellow composer to the United States that he would "rather go to the devil"!

Our reading from Luke is the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Alison reflects on how it reminds us that whenever we are tempted to view ourselves too favourably, we should remember that we — like all around us — are made from the same dust.

We close with the hymn "Come down, O Love divine" which sets a fourteenth century text by Bianco da Siena – a member of the Order of Jesuates, a group of unordained men who followed the prescripts of St Augustine. The tune is Down Ampney by the great Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Information about our weekly Sunday services in St Bride's of Choral Eucharist at 11am (https://www.stbrides.com/worship-music/worship/regular-services/choral-eucharist/) and Choral Evensong at 5:30pm (https://www.stbrides.com/worship-music/worship/regular-services/choral-evensong/) can be found on the website.

Find out what's happening at St Bride's at https://www.stbrides.com/whats-on

If you enjoy listening, please leave a comment below or subscribe to our channel. It is great to get your feedback.

SUPPORT ST BRIDE'S

==================

We are hugely grateful for people's generosity which we wholly rely on to continue our work, maintain our wonderful architectural heritage and support world-class music-making. People are often surprised to learn that St Bride's receives no external funding.

If you would like to make a donation, you can do so at https://www.justgiving.com/stbrideschurchfleetstreet

Join The Revd Canon Dr Alison Joyce, Rector of St Bride's, and St Bride's Choir for this week's reflection in words and music.

The late-Renaissance, English composer Thomas Weelkes – famed for his wonderful music and his wayward behaviour – set words from Psalm 132 in the jubilant seven-part anthem "O Lord, arise into thy resting-place" which the choir sings at the start of this reflection. He died in 1623 whilst visiting a friend in Fleet Street and so ended up being buried here at St Bride's. His tombstone can be seen in the main Crypt Chapel.

Our reading is the Parable of the Widow and the Unjust Judge and Alison cautions against drawing the wrong conclusion from this in her reflection.

We close with the hymn "O thou who camest from above" written by the Methodist and great hymnist Charles Wesley and sung to the tune Hereford composed by his grandson, Samuel Wesley.

Information about our weekly Sunday services in St Bride's of Choral Eucharist at 11am (https://www.stbrides.com/worship-music/worship/regular-services/choral-eucharist/) and Choral Evensong at 5:30pm (https://www.stbrides.com/worship-music/worship/regular-services/choral-evensong/) can be found on the website.

Find out what's happening at St Bride's at https://www.stbrides.com/whats-on

If you enjoy listening, please leave a comment below or subscribe to our channel. It is great to get your feedback.

SUPPORT ST BRIDE'S

==================

We are hugely grateful for people's generosity which we wholly rely on to continue our work, maintain our wonderful architectural heritage and support world-class music-making. People are often surprised to learn that St Bride's receives no external funding.

If you would like to make a donation, you can do so at https://www.justgiving.com/stbrideschurchfleetstreet

Join The Revd Dr Jeff Lake, Associate Priest of St Bride's, and St Bride's Choir for this week's reflection in words and music.

Today in church we celebrate Harvest Festival and Creationtide at our two services so what better anthem to open this week's reflection than Haydn's "Achieved is the glorious work". It is the final movement of Part 2 of his most-accomplished work, The Creation, and closes the narrative of the sixth day of God's Creation.

Jeff's reflection begins with the recollection of a Harvest Festival service which is one of the highlights of the year in his local parish in Lewes.

We close with the seasonal harvest hymn "We plough the fields and scatter", a translation of an 18th century text by the Lutheran pastor, Matthias Claudius.

Information about our weekly Sunday services in St Bride's of Choral Eucharist at 11am (https://www.stbrides.com/worship-music/worship/regular-services/choral-eucharist/) and Choral Evensong at 5:30pm (https://www.stbrides.com/worship-music/worship/regular-services/choral-evensong/) can be found on the website.

Find out what's happening at St Bride's at https://www.stbrides.com/whats-on

If you enjoy listening, please leave a comment below or subscribe to our channel. It is great to get your feedback.

SUPPORT ST BRIDE'S

==================

We are hugely grateful for people's generosity which we wholly rely on to continue our work, maintain our wonderful architectural heritage and support world-class music-making. People are often surprised to learn that St Bride's receives no external funding.

If you would like to make a donation, you can do so at https://www.justgiving.com/stbrideschurchfleetstreet

Join The Revd Canon Dr Alison Joyce, Rector of St Bride's, and St Bride's Choir for this week's reflection in words and music.

The choir opens this reflection with a beautiful double-choir setting of the Gloria from the mass "Missa Bell' Amfitrit' altera" by the sixteenth century composer, Orlandus Lassus. Although Flemish by birth, Lassus choose to live and work in Bavaria, first as a singer and then as Kapellmeister at the Bavarian Court, becoming the most prominent musician there.

Our reading begins with a plea from the Apsotles to Jesus to "Increase our faith!" Alison reflects on this, how we respond to the gift of faith and those who help shape that response.

We close with the hymn "Teach me, my God and King", another beautiful text from the English priest and poet, George Herbert.

Information about our weekly Sunday services in St Bride's of Choral Eucharist at 11am (https://www.stbrides.com/worship-music/worship/regular-services/choral-eucharist/) and Choral Evensong at 5:30pm (https://www.stbrides.com/worship-music/worship/regular-services/choral-evensong/) can be found on the website.

Find out what's happening at St Bride's at https://www.stbrides.com/whats-on

If you enjoy listening, please leave a comment below or subscribe to our channel. It is great to get your feedback.

SUPPORT ST BRIDE'S

==================

We are hugely grateful for people's generosity which we wholly rely on to continue our work, maintain our wonderful architectural heritage and support world-class music-making. People are often surprised to learn that St Bride's receives no external funding.

If you would like to make a donation, you can do so at https://www.justgiving.com/stbrideschurchfleetstreet

Join The Revd Canon Dr Alison Joyce, Rector of St Bride's, and St Bride's Choir for this week's reflection in words and music.

Our reflection opens as St Bride's Choir sings the eight-part motet "For he shall give his angels charge over thee" from Mendelssohn's great oratorio Elijah.

In our reading we hear the parable of the rich man and the beggar, Lazarus. Alison goes on to reflect on this and our attitudes towards money in our journeys of faith.

We close with the hymn "Immortal, invisible, God only wise" to the Welsh tune St Denio with text by the Scottish pastor Walter Smith.

Information about our weekly Sunday services in St Bride's of Choral Eucharist at 11am (https://www.stbrides.com/worship-music/worship/regular-services/choral-eucharist/) and Choral Evensong at 5:30pm (https://www.stbrides.com/worship-music/worship/regular-services/choral-evensong/) can be found on the website.

Find out what's happening at St Bride's at https://www.stbrides.com/whats-on

If you enjoy listening, please leave a comment below or subscribe to our channel. It is great to get your feedback.

SUPPORT ST BRIDE'S

==================

We are hugely grateful for people's generosity which we wholly rely on to continue our work, maintain our wonderful architectural heritage and support world-class music-making. People are often surprised to learn that St Bride's receives no external funding.

If you would like to make a donation, you can do so at https://www.justgiving.com/stbrideschurchfleetstreet