Joyous Evensong

Evensong at Canterbury Cathedral: what a joyous end to a wonderful day. The service was led by an old friend, Wendy Dalrymple, formerly of Loughborough but now Precentor at the Cathedral. We had wonderful singing by a girl's choir. We sang a great pilgrim hymn, Guide me O thou great Redeemer. And we were blessed with John Rutter's exquisite 'The Lord bless you and keep you.'

I was ordained in 1996, when the Church in Wales (where I served) didn't ordain women yet, and the Church of England had only just done so. Girl choristers made national news in those days. Women bishop's could only be imagined in some far-flung future.

And today, in Anglicanism's mother church, a superb woman priest led Evensong with a wonderful girl's choir and, among other things, prayed for Rose, the Bishop of Dover. And the amazing thing? That was totally unexceptional. No one batted an eyelid.

Good times.

I do like to think, though, that the ecclesiastical greats of past ages buried or commemorated in the Cathedral were turning in their graves. And, with the benefit of the heavenly grace and wisdom in which they are now bathed, were turning to say: "How magnificent! We wish we'd lived to see this day."