Last week I helped cut a video meditation for the Rumours of Hope Easter Vigil. It was a privilege to be part of such a historic event. It was also wonderful to have representatives of different parts of my life within the same vigil; cathedral Precentors and musicians, but also new monastic communities and those who have worked with the Fresh Expressions movement. To make life easier from a copyright point of view I thought I'd use a piece of my own music as backing, and then remembered "Vigils", which seemed rather aptly titled. It had originally been part of a planned seven piece ambient album; one piece for each of the ancient monastic offices, with the music reflecting the time of day. However, I ran out of inspiration and only Vespers and Vigils were ever written. Maybe one day I will go back and write Lauds and Terce and all the others!
The video itself contained many pieces of footage that I collected when I was still working for the Visions community in York, including footage of tourists leaving the South door of York minster which was taken from the offices of St Michael-Le-Belfrey opposite. It also contains images taken in Northern Ireland, Istanbul, Jordan, and the Holy Land. Visions began in 1989, and is one of the longest running Alternative Worship communities. They used to be connected to St Michaels (some members still are!), meeting weekly to hold worship in the ancient church of St Cuthbert in York, and working as a "small missional community", reaching out to the club goers of York in the 1990s, and later to the arts communities. In (2013?) Visions were asked to move out of St Cuthbert's to make way for a "house of prayer" but they do services in All Saints North Street in York from time to time... Now, after this virus, (like everyone else!) they meet virtually via Zoom, but they have, since 1989, also met midweek in each others houses, and it was their pooling of time, money and resources that enabled me to be employed by them in the first place,
Anyway if you want to find your way to other pieces of music by me they are all on my Abbess site on Soundclick, although I haven't written any electronica recently. If you like any of the pieces they are free to use in worship (including your church online broadcasts). I may go back to writing at some point, but I am prevented from doing so at the moment because the computer I used to use with the synthesiser software on it needs fixing! In recent years, I have been working with choirs (helping to found the Winchester Cathedral Junior Choir) as I believe that singing is a great (and very natural way) to reach out in mission and help young people learn music. I've also been doing some work with percussion, and, had this virus not hit, I would have been planning launch events for my new Rhythmic Psalter. As things stand instead I have been editing videos and some of these will appear on my YouTube channel. The Transcendence trust website is also a useful portal for resources and events. I work part-time for the trust, but I am also on the lookout for a church job that would slot in alongside this...In the meantime, like everyone else, I am in lockdown, but I am grateful to have the time to explore lots of previously unreleased music and video footage.
This blog is normally used for my more traditional liturgy postings and my other blog (Canon Sue's Creative Liturgy Blog) is the one to go to for the creative stuff.
