The text comes from Hymns of the Anglo-Saxon Church, ed. Inge B. Milfull (Cambridge, 1996), pp. 317-8. Here’s a translation:

Hail Dunstan, star and shining adornment of bishops, true light of the English nation and leader preceding it on its path to God.

You are the greatest hope of your people, and also an innermost sweetness, breathing the honey-sweet fragrance of life-giving balms.

In you, Father, we trust, we to whom nothing is more pleasing than you are. To you we stretch out our hands, to you we pour out our prayers….

Read it all.

19 May is the feast of St Dunstan, one of the greatest saints of Anglo-Saxon England, who died in 988 – a multi-talented archbishop, statesman, musician, metal-worker, and devil-fighter https://t.co/HblFsbRp5o pic.twitter.com/8ujcJ3pQuq

— Eleanor Parker (@ClerkofOxford) May 19, 2023

Lyrics:

Haec dies quam fecit Dominus;
Exsultemus etlaetemur in ea,
Alleluia, Alleluia
Haec dies quam fecit Dominus;
Exsultemus etlaetemur in ea,
Alleluia, Alleluia,
Alleluia.
(Psalm 118:24)

Lyrics:

O Radiant Dawn, O Radiant Dawn, O Radiant Dawn
Splendour of Eternal Light
Sun of Justice, Sun of Justice, Sun of Justice
Come, come, come, come, come,
come shine on those who dwell in darkness And the shadow of death

Isaiah had prophesied,
‘The people who walked in darkness have seen a great Light.
Upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone’

O Radiant Dawn, O Radiant Dawn, O Radiant Dawn
Splendour of Eternal Light
Sun of Justice, Sun of Justice, Sun of Justice
Come, come, come, come, come,
come shine on those who dwell in darkness And the shadow of death

Amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen

Listen to it all.

Lyrics:

Most glorious Lord of life, that on this day
Didst make thy triumph over death and sin,
And having harrow’d hell, didst bring away
Captivity thence captive, us to win.
This joyous day, dear Lord, with joy begin,
And grant that we may for whom thou diddest die,
Being with thy dear blood clean wash’d from sin,
May live for ever in felicity.
And that thy love we weighing worthily,
May likewise love thee for the same again;
And for Thy sake, that all like dear didst buy,
With love may one another entertain.
So let us love, dear love, like as we ought;
Love is the lesson which the Lord us taught.
The day of resurrection! Earth, tell it out abroad;
The Passover of gladness, the Passover of God.
From death to life eternal, from earth unto the sky,
Our Christ hath brought us over, with hymns of victory. Amen.

Lyrics:

Jesus the very thought of You it fills my heart with love
Jesus You burn like wildfire and I am overcome

Lover of my soul even unto death
With my every breath I will love You

Jesus You are my only hope and You my prize shall be
Jesus You are my glory now and in eternity

In my darkest hour
In humiliation
I will wait for You
I am not forsaken
Though I lose my life
Though my breath be taken
I will wait for You
I am not forsaken
One thing I desire
To see You in Your beauty
You are my delight
You are my glory
You my Sacrifice
Your love is all-consuming
You are my delight
You are my glory

Watch and listen to it all from the original writers of the song.

Yes, yes, it is dated, but still wonderful.

Wishing you a restful Easter Sunday 🙏

Titian's 'Noli me Tangere' depicts the moment Christ rises from the dead, appearing to his grieving follower, Mary Magdalene.

Explore the story of the Passion, told through paintings in our collection: https://t.co/zOJDC0tC89 pic.twitter.com/BlCxBztJ1N

— National Gallery (@NationalGallery) April 9, 2023

Lyrics:

1 Come, ye faithful, raise the strain
of triumphant gladness;
God hath brought his Israel
into joy from sadness;
loosed from Pharaoh’s bitter yoke
Jacob’s sons and daughters;
led them with unmoistened foot
through the Red Sea waters.

2 ‘Tis the spring of souls today;
Christ hath burst his prison,
and from three days’ sleep in death
as a sun hath risen;
all the winter of our sins,
long and dark, is flying
from his light, to whom we give
laud and praise undying.

3 Now the queen of seasons, bright
with the day of splendor,
with the royal feast of feasts,
comes its joy to render;
comes to glad Jerusalem,
who with true affection
welcomes in unwearied strains
Jesus’ resurrection.

4 Neither might the gates of death,
nor the tomb’s dark portal,
nor the watchers, nor the seal
hold thee as a mortal:
but today amidst thine own
thou didst stand, bestowing
thine own peace, which evermore
passeth human knowing.

Listen to the whole glorious thing.

Lyrics:

1.This joyful Eastertide
away with sin and sorrow!
My love, the Crucified,
has sprung to life this morrow.

Refrain:
Had Christ, who once was slain,
not burst his three-day prison,
our faith had been in vain:
but now hath Christ arisen,
arisen, arisen;
but now has Christ arisen!

2. My flesh in hope shall rest
and for a season slumber
till trump from east to west
shall wake the dead in number. [

3. Death’s flood has lost its chill
since Jesus crossed the river.
Lover of souls, from ill
my passing soul deliver.

Listen to it all.

Lyrics (from Psalm 47)–

O clap your hands together, all ye people; O sing unto God with the voice of melody. For the Lord is high and to be feared; he is the great King of all the earth. He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet. He shall choose out an heritage for us, even the worship of Jacob, whom he loved.

God is gone up with a merry noise, and the Lord with the sound of the trumpet. O sing praises, sing praises unto our God: O sing praises unto the Lord our King. For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with the understanding. God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon his holy seat. For God, which is highly exalted, doth defend the earth, as it were with a shield.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen

Take the time to listen to it all from the Oxford Philomusica.

One has to turn to poetry and music this day because the news of what occurred is so good it is impossible fully to take in–KSH.

#EasterSunday @EdPiotrowski @medwick @ChrissyKohler @WXIIJackie @Em_I_Am @JustinMcKeeWx @LeeHaywoodWX @ramelcarpenter @marioncaldwx @RealSaltLife @StarboardRail @StormHour @ThePhotoHour @Christina4casts @CMorganWX @AndrewWMBF @AlexCorderoWX @ScottyPowellWX @FOX8CindyFarmer pic.twitter.com/KT65UXmd7e

— Mark Moore (@MMoore_hoops) April 9, 2023

Listen to it all and you can read more about it, including finding the lyrics, at Lent and Beyond.

In the midst of life we are in death.
We grow and wither as quickly as flowers;
we disappear like shadows.
To whom can we go for help, but to you, Lord God,
though you are rightly displeased because of our sins?
And yet, Lord God Almighty,
most holy and most merciful Saviour,
deliver us from the bitterness of eternal death.
You know the secrets of our hearts;
mercifully hear us, most worthy judge eternal;
keep us, at our last hour,
in the consolation of your love.

You, O Lord, are gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and rich in love.
As kind as a father is to his children,
so kind is the Lord to those who honour him.
For you know what we are made of;
you remember that we are dust.
As for us, our life is like grass.
We grow and flourish like a wildflower;
then the wind blows on it, and it is gone
no-one sees it again.
But for those who honour the Lord, his love lasts forever,
and his goodness endures for all generations.

Sábado.
Ele ainda está…morto!
.
.
Pintura:
Salma di Cristo, por Annibale Carracci, Sec XVI pic.twitter.com/bBk149WO13

— Thiago Moura (@ThiagoMoura1981) April 8, 2023

look through them all.

Christians around the world mark #Good Friday – in pictures https://t.co/2m7zJmMkgd #christianity #globalisation #holyweek #holyweek2023 #photos

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) April 7, 2023

1 Ah, holy Jesus, how hast thou offended,
that we to judge thee have in hate pretended?
By foes derided, by thine own rejected,
O most afflicted!

2 Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon thee?
Alas, my treason, Jesus, hath undone thee!
‘Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied thee;
I crucified thee.

3 Lo, the Good Shepherd for the sheep is offered;
the slave hath sinned, and the Son hath suffered.
For our atonement, while we nothing heeded,
God interceded.

4 For me, kind Jesus, was thy incarnation,
thy mortal sorrow, and thy life’s oblation;
thy death of anguish and thy bitter passion,
for my salvation.

5 Therefore, kind Jesus, since I cannot pay thee,
I do adore thee, and will ever pray thee,
think on thy pity and thy love unswerving,
not my deserving.

Lyrics:

O sacred head, sore wounded,
defiled and put to scorn;
O kingly head surrounded
with mocking crown of thorn:
What sorrow mars thy grandeur?
Can death thy bloom deflower?
O countenance whose splendor
the hosts of heaven adore!

Thy beauty, long-desirèd,
hath vanished from our sight;
thy power is all expirèd,
and quenched the light of light.
Ah me! for whom thou diest,
hide not so far thy grace:
show me, O Love most highest,
the brightness of thy face.

I pray thee, Jesus, own me,
me, Shepherd good, for thine;
who to thy fold hast won me,
and fed with truth divine.
Me guilty, me refuse not,
incline thy face to me,
this comfort that I lose not,
on earth to comfort thee.

In thy most bitter passion
my heart to share doth cry,
with thee for my salvation
upon the cross to die.
Ah, keep my heart thus moved
to stand thy cross beneath,
to mourn thee, well-beloved,
yet thank thee for thy death.

My days are few, O fail not,
with thine immortal power,
to hold me that I quail not
in death’s most fearful hour;
that I may fight befriended,
and see in my last strife
to me thine arms extended
upon the cross of life.

Where charity and love are, God is there.
Christ’s love has gathered us into one.
Let us rejoice and be pleased in Him.
Let us fear, and let us love the living God.
And may we love each other with a sincere heart

Where charity and love are, God is there.
As we are gathered into one body,
Beware, lest we be divided in mind.
Let evil impulses stop, let controversy cease,
And may Christ our God be in our midst.

WHERE charity and love are, God is there.
And may we with the saints also,
See Thy face in glory, O Christ our God:
The joy that is immense and good,
Unto the ages through infinite ages. Amen.

The decline in church attendance of almost one quarter between 2019 and 2022 may be the result of reduced supply rather than lower demand. A new report suggests that too many churches abandoned their online offering and cut the number of services available.

Church Attendance in October 2022: Post-Covid-19 trends, patterns and possibilities draws on data from five dioceses, and concludes that there is a “strong correlation” between reduced provision and reduced attendance. “Numbers are lower than in 2019 not because the demand for church is in inevitable decline but because of difficulties with the supply of both onsite and online church services,” it says.

“Churches that stayed online and have not reduced their service numbers have fully regained 2019 attendance levels. It is only where churches have retrenched that their attendance is reduced.”

This should be a cause for optimism, the report argues: “If attendance is sensitive to the state and supply of church life and worship, then the future of attendance trends lies in the churches’ own hands. Developing the number and relevance of services leads to church growth.” New models of leadership that “take pressure off the stipendiary clergy” may be key to recovering 2019 levels of attendance, it says.

The report, hosted by the diocese of Oxford, draws on data from Canterbury, Chester, Guildford, Oxford, and Leeds.

Read it all.

The report shows ‘strong correlation’ rather than causation but authors write: ‘Numbers are lower than in 2019 not because the demand for church is in inevitable decline but because of difficulties with the supply of both onsite and online church services’ https://t.co/For8BQawhM

— Madeleine Davies (@MadsDavies) April 3, 2023

A few pre-COVID churchgoers may no longer be involved in your congregation. If someone was connected with your church at the start of the pandemic, however, chances are they’ve stuck with you through it all.

While regular church attendance has dropped slightly since 2019, church participation has remained “remarkably steady” throughout the pandemic, according to an analysis from Pew Research.

In July 2020, around 41% of Americans said they had participated in religious services in the past month, including both in-person and virtual attendance. In November 2022, 40% of Americans continued to say they participated in some way.

While the percentage participating has remained stable, the way they participate has shifted since the first months of the pandemic. In July 2020, 13% said they had attended services in person in the past month. And 36% had watched online or on TV. By November 2022, 28% attended in person and 24% watched.

Read it all.

New every morning is the love
our wakening and uprising prove;
through sleep and darkness safely brought,
restored to life and power and thought.

New mercies, each returning day,
hover around us while we pray;
new perils past, new sins forgiven,
new thoughts of God, new hopes of heaven.

If on our daily course our mind
be set to hallow all we find,
new treasures still, of countless price,
God will provide for sacrifice.

Old friends, old scenes, will lovelier be,
as more of heaven in each we see;
some softening gleam of love and prayer
shall dawn on every cross and care.

The trivial round, the common task,
will furnish all we ought to ask:
room to deny ourselves; a road
to bring us daily nearer God.

Only, O Lord, in thy dear love,
fit us for perfect rest above;
and help us, this and every day,
to live more nearly as we pray

Increased in-person attendance, which had been severely impacted in 2020, reflected the vaccine rollout, and the easing of Covid-19 restrictions throughout the year, though it also showed that many people chose to stay away from public indoor spaces especially during those periods when restrictions remained in place, and during the late autumn that saw the emergence of the Omicron variant.

Despite the challenges brought on by the pandemic, the data showed a weekly total of 15,800 people were reported at cathedral services in 2021. This is a 22 per cent more than the equivalent figure from 2020, although still 58 per cent below the 2019 figure.

Meanwhile, the number of cathedrals offering online worship in addition to, or augmenting in-person services remained high, with 94 per cent of cathedrals continuing to offer this.

Weddings showed the closest return to pre-pandemic numbers with 230 marriages conducted in cathedrals during 2021, 93 per cent of the figure from 2019, and an increase of 250 per cent from the 2020 total.

During 2021, there were a total of 320 baptisms conducted in all Church of England cathedrals. This was 43 per cent of the equivalent figure in 2019, but a 242 per cent increase on the total number of baptisms that took place in cathedrals in 2020.

Read it all.

"The data from 2021 demonstrates the resilience of the cathedrals and their importance to local communities in the face of adversity."

– Dean of Canterbury, @davidrmmonteith reflects on the latest data from Church of England cathedrals.

Read more at https://t.co/UOHpwt09sM.

— The Church of England (@churchofengland) March 24, 2023

A vicar undergoing treatment for stage four skin cancer has made a song from the sounds of an MRI scanning machine.

The Reverend Matthew Simpkins, of Lexden in Colchester, was first diagnosed with the disease in 2019.

In 2021, the cancer returned and the 44-year-old, who is the priest-in-charge of Lexden, has had months of treatment and various scans.

“I thought the way I am going to get through this is by writing a song during this scan,” he said.

Read it all.

An Essex vicar found the best way to cope with MRI scans – was to turn the noises into a pop song 🎸
Matt has stage 4 cancer & says making music is therapy to him
This weird and wonderful story is on Look East at 6:30pm! 🎥 #essex #colchetser #suffolk https://t.co/JgMdMh85v6

— Zoie O'Brien (@ZoieOBrien_) March 22, 2023

Viewing figures for the Church of England’s national online services show that the services continue to receive about 150,000 views per week. They accrued more than eight million views in 2022.

The Church of England is marking the three-year anniversary of its online services this week, introduced in March 2020, when gathering for public worship was restricted as part of measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19. One year later, it was able to report that clips and content from the services had been seen 40 million times on social-media channels.

The current figures are acknowledged to be a conservative estimate. “Our analysis in May 2022 showed that 20 per cent of viewers watch with at least one other person; so this would add at least another 30,000 views to the above,” a Church House spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

“This is without including listeners to the Daily Hope phone line, and also instances where the service is put out on hospital radio or in prisons or old people’s homes, which we don’t currently track but which we hear anecdotally is happening. Our New Year’s Day 2023 service gained 800,000 views.”

Read it all.

Viewing figures for the Church of England’s national online services show that the services continue to receive about 150,000 views per week. They accrued more than eight million views in 2022 https://t.co/SH3v3crH07

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) March 22, 2023

“Music has the great capacity to draw in people who are not necessarily committed Christians at this moment, but who are talented musicians, and who may find, if they are allowed to put their gifts into church music, that faith emerges.”

Church and cathedral choirs were masterful at enabling personal and spiritual growth, Dr Hance said, referring to a transformation at St Leonard’s, Streatham, “in an unglamorous bit of South London . . . a thoroughly ordinary inner urban church, a little bit catholic but not really, a little bit evangelical but not that much, a building with beautiful bits” and a diverse congregation.

“This church has doubled in attendance over the five years the present Rector has been in post, and not from doing anything very left-field or wacky, but by investing in doing what we do as well as we can do it, and most especially the music and the liturgy. The present music director has built a wonderful choir through hard work and skilful networking and the music on a Sunday morning is always excellent, sometimes glorious. We now have a children’s choir who are taking their first steps and they will become excellent over time too.

“It’s all about the right level of investment in the people, helping them to discover and develop their skills and talents, to become more than they thought they could be. . . We call it discipleship.”

Read it all.

Music shapes the mission of the Church: who it attracts and who it repels, the Revd Dr Stephen Hance, who is the Church of England’s national lead for evangelism, told the annual Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) online conference on Saturday https://t.co/j3PZT4dNW3

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) March 21, 2023

A village’s church bells will be ready to ring out for King Charles III’s coronation in May, bell ringers say.

The eight bells at St Peter’s in Alton, Staffordshire, were removed in October under a £100,000 restoration project.

Work has begun to put them back along with two new bells, and tower captain Alan Walters says he hopes to have them ready for Easter.

“The main thing is the Coronation, we want to be able to ring for that,” he said.

“If we miss Easter then we will be fine for the Coronation.”

Read it all.

Staffordshire News: Coronation target for Alton village bells to ring again https://t.co/LqlezZEvb2

— StaffordshireUK (@UKStaffordshire) March 14, 2023