17.12.2020
Service of Nine Lessons & Carols – A 2020 Collaboration
A Service of Nine Lessons & Carols collaboration involving over 100 singers from 30 parishes across Ireland has been published on YouTube.
With a bidding prayer given by the Archbishop of Dublin and concluding with a blessing from the Archbishop of Armagh, the service will provide a wonderful resource for parishes this year when restrictions mean that most carol services cannot take place physically. Readings have been recorded from different parishes involved.
The full Carol Service is available to watch on YouTube here. The sound files of the carols and two anthems are available for parishes to download to use in their physical Christmas services where singing cannot take place, or in their virtual services online. They can be downloaded from the Church Music Dublin website here.
The service is the brainchild of Director of Music at St Brigid’s Church in Sillorgan, Tom Maxwell. He has been working on the project since late September but his efforts are likely to be all the more in demand as restrictions mean that choirs cannot sing in church services.
At the end of September Tom launched his appeal for members of choirs to get in touch to take part in the collaboration. He was overwhelmed with the response and ever since he has been singing carols. Singers recorded themselves on their smartphones using sing–along tracks conducted and provided by Tom with the organ played by David Adams. He then lifted all the vocals and put the recordings together to create the virtual choir.
Initially he hoped to record four congregational carols and one choir piece but the project has snowballed and a full 9 lessons, read by parishioners from some of the participating parishes, and carols will be available from this weekend. The video has been edited by fellow Stillorgan parishioner Simon Grier.
Rector of St Brigid’s Church, Stillorgan, the Revd Ian Gallagher, has paid tribute to the work of all involved, in particular Tom Maxwell and Simon Grier. “Tom has done enormous work arranging for singers to record themselves and organising all the sound files. Simon has done a fabulous job putting it all together in video,” he commented.
Watch the video below and please feel free to share it.