On 11 November we celebrated all those from The John Fisher School who have gone on lead a life in the Church; Fr James Cadman, Fr Mark Higgins and Fr Matthew O’Gorman  are three former students who this year were ordained to the priesthood.  We were very touched that Fr James traveled down from Manchester to join us for the evening.  Our very special guest was Keith Ockenden, who was our faithful Sacristan for over 50 years.

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We opened with the whole congregation singing the school hymn together.  The full choir of students, parents and friends then sang Stanford’s Magnificat in C and Nunc Dimittis

Countless settings of these prayers, prayers of Mary and Simeon have been written throughout history. Stanford’s setting in C is one of the most famous, being a cornerstone in the repertoire of all Cathedral choirs. Both texts are taken from St. Luke’s Gospel – the words of the Magnificat are sung by Mary in thanks to God for his help and guidance at the Visitation and the Song of Simeon (Nunc Dimittis) was sung by Simeon when he first saw Jesus, after he was promised by the holy Spirit that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah.

The prayer of St Richard of Chichester is in our school prayer book and was sung by the junior choir.  Composed in the same year that Keith Ockenden started the school, this piece uses the words that St. Richard said on his deathbed. He was the Bishop of Chichester but lived a very modest life,  living in humble quarters and eating simple food. This prayer is commonly used in ordinations and confirmation services within the Church.

The Parents and friends choir then followed singing Himmel’s Inclina ad me.  The text of this piece comes from Psalm 30 and calls on the Lord to listen to our pleas and guide us on his religious path. The rest of the Psalm, which hasn’t been set to music by Himmel, talks of how the Lord has always been there for the author and how God has   always supported them.They followed this with Walford Davies’ God Be In My Head.  This humble poem was adapted from text found in Luke’s Gospel. It simply speaks of our need to have the influence of God in all of the aspects of our lives, especially at our departing from this world.

Next was the Chapel Choir singing Bruckner’s Christus Factus Est, taken from St Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians and  used during Eastertide to show the sacrifice that Christ made for us. Along with this piece, Bruckner wrote “Through this emotive music, I have tried to humanise the experience that Christ went through for us in order to persuade all Christians to follow his example of sacrifice.”.  This was followed by the Satff Choir singing Wesley’s Lead Me Lord and Mozart’s Ave Varum.

                                                      

The string players from the Chamber Orchestra treated us to a selection from Handel’s Music for the Royal FIreworks.  This music was commissioned by George II in 1749 to celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle with Austria. The celebratory nature of this piece is also very suitable for this evening as we recognise the vocations accepted by members of our school.

The Chapel choir sung The Lamb, by Tavener and Stopford’s Jesus and the Apple Tree.  The Lamb is a poem written by William Blake in 1789 as part of a collection of poems known of ‘Songs of Innocence’. The Lamb symbolises the meekness, gentleness and peacefulness of Christ and the piece is particularly fitting as it is a favourite of several of old boys who have now been ordained into the priesthood, as well as Mr Hawkes from St Elphege’s school, another old boy who was with us on the night.

                                                        

Jesus and the Apple Tree highlights the importance of our need to trust in Christ and follow his teachings. Through comparing him to an apple tree, the text refers to Jesus as our spiritual nourishment . Also, this piece is a tribute to the ground on which this Chapel was built – whilst Keith Ockenden and many others were still at school, there was an orchard on the school site until the building of the Chapel in 1958.

Our final choir piece, O Thou, The Central Orb is based on a poem by H. R. Bramley.  In this poem, Jesus is symbolised as our only hope and saviour but also as our King and light in troubled times.  Through this, we hope to convey not only the necessity we have to trust in God but also the sense of celebration and pride we have as a school for all those who have been called to service in Christ’s priesthood.

To finish, again, the congregation joined us as we took the roof off  to Jerusalem.

Mrs Curzon kindly said a few works of thanks and recognised the commitment of all those who had taken part in the concert, the preparation is no mean feat.

Finally our four esteemed guests had their photo taken with the choir before we enjoyed refreshments in the Sixth Form centre, provided by some of our very generous parents

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The choir with, from left to right, Fr Mark Higgins, Keith Ockenden, Fr Matthew O’Gorman and Fr James Cadman