Choral Evensong and Organ Vespers
Beginning October 10, 2021, St. Peter's is again delighted to offer monthly Choral Evensong services. See below for the full schedule.
This season, we are also inaugurating a series of Organ Vespers services to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the installation and dedication of St. Peter's Mander organ.
Choral Evensong
and Organ Vespers services
2021/22
- Organ Vespers
Sunday, September 26, 2021, at 5:00 p.m. - Choral Evensong
Sunday, October 10, 2021, at 5:00 p.m. - Choral Evensong
Sunday, November 14, 2021, at 5:00 p.m. - Organ Vespers - Guest Organist: Horst Buchholz
Advent Sunday, November 28, 2021, at 5:00 p.m. - A Service of Lessons and Carols for Advent
Sunday, December 12, 2021, at 5:00 p.m. - A Service of Lessons and Carols for Epiphany
Sunday, January 9, 2022, at 5:00 p.m. - Choral Evensong
Sunday, February 13, 2022, at 5:00 p.m. - Organ Vespers - Guest Organist: Sarah Bereza
Sunday, February 27, 2022, at 5:00 p.m. - Choral Evensong
Sunday, March 13, 2022, at 5:00 p.m. - Choral Evensong
Sunday, April 10, 2022, at 5:00 p.m. - Organ Vespers - Guest Organist: Matthew Gerhardt
Sunday, May 8, 2022, at 5:00 p.m. - Organ Vespers
Trinity Sunday, June 12, 2022, at 5:00 p.m. - Organ Vespers - Guest Organist: Barbara Raedeke
Sunday, August 14, 2022, at 5:00 p.m.
About Choral Evensong at St. Peter's
The service of Choral Evensong has been offered regularly at St. Peter's for more than thirty years. Monthly Evensong services began at St. Peter's on March 4, 1990. Most Evensong services are sung by the St. Peter's Singers.
Evensong is a traditional Anglican service of Evening Prayer, sung. Read more about the service of Evensong as it is sung at St. Peter's: Evensong is for Everyone!
Services of Choral Evensong are typcailly held October through April on the second Sunday of the month at 5:00 p.m. In December and January, these services take the form of Lessons and Carols for Advent and Epiphany respectively.
All of St. Peter's services and concerts are free and open to the public. Everyone is most welcome.
About Organ Vespers at St. Peter's
The Mander organ at St. Peter’s was first heard 20 years ago. With approximately 3,000 pipes, it is the largest mechanical-action organ in the St. Louis region.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the installation and dedication of the organ, everyone is invited to a series of Organ Vespers services.
Vespers is an ancient form of Evening Prayer. If you are familiar with the service of Choral Evensong, you are already familiar with the elements of the service of Vespers, including the traditional Canticle, the Magnificat. The liturgy comes from An Order of Worship for the Evening from the Book of Common Prayer.
In these Organ Vespers services, the organ itself takes on a major leadership role. In other words, the organ will do what it has does best for the past 20 years: lead us in prayer and worship. At the moment when these Organ Vespers services begin, we have not yet been able to permit congregational singing (September 2021). It seems especially fitting, therefore, to let the organ sing for us. (And when we are finally able to allow congregational singing at these services, the experience will be all the richer for it.)
Organ Vespers at St. Peter’s will include a wide variety of sacred music from centuries of the organ’s large repertoire, much of it written especially for the service of Vespers. The series begins on Sunday, September 26 at 5:00 p.m. and continues throughout the year with several services played by guest organists (see full schedule above).