Takeover bid on cathedral/ from bluebells to wisteria

Wonderful day! Our choir sang evensong in Lincoln cathedral to celebrate Fr Alan Wright's 40 years as choir master, and I don't think that anyone attending cathedral evensong expecting the usual choir could have been disappointed. The closing organ voluntary was composed by our organist Geoff Brown, who played throughout. The Psalm setting (Ps 135) was one of those exegetical ones  [I'll find out which] that goes from major to a minor key and back again, to warn those whose attention to the actual words may have wandered that it's best to stay on the right side of this god, 'cos he does his share of smiting. The Barton bellringers rang the bells. It's great to be part of church which has a thriving choir able to do the decent Anglican thing, and do it very well.

Our congregation does well too, and most weeks we sing the psalm to Anglican chant; it seems to me that the congregation is a hefted flock (a term borrowed from sheep-rearing terminology which I believe has been used before in scriptural and ecclesiastical contexts), in that there is an ingrained knowledge of the territory which it would be tragic to lose. We are grateful to our good shepherds Alan and Geoff for keeping us safe.

You can see that we had a great bunfight afterwards, and here is Alan holding forth in Edward King House. 

I try to do my bit to keep up Anglican traditions too; it seems to me that a parish that has a proper choir should have a properly dressed clergywifey. I spent the afternoon on research (for a replacement lipstick and the stuff you use to cover up the dark shadows under the eyes that come from worrying about what to wear) while the choir rehearsed. Of course, the flowers on the hat flopped in the wind and heat of the afternoon, and on the way back someone asked me if it was decorated with wisteria; I had to admit that the flowers had started their life as bunches of bluebells. This transformation was a discovery which could have its uses: "I'm not a wilted bluebell, I'm a wisteria".