Christ the King

25 November 2018

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Entrance	Christus vincit
Penitential Rite	St Gabriel (mtgf)
Gloria	Angels and Saints (Steven Janco)
Psalm 92	The Lord is king (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	Salisbury Alleluia (Christopher Walker)
Preparation of Gifts	Christ the glory (Lalouette)
Eucharistic Acclamations	Creation (Marty Haugen)
Lamb of God	Angels and Saints (Steven Janco)
Communion Antiphon	The Lord sits (mtgf)
Communion	Ave verum (Elgar)
Final	Hail redeemer

A question this morning about the Gloria - or rather a request for the congregation to sing the whole text. First, to not the incredibly positive of a congregation wishing to sing more! I did explain at the time that we sing a variety of Gloria some of which are responsorial and some through composed. Thinking about it afterwards, we sing 5 Gloria settings: 2 responsorial, 3 through.Though my instinct is to be happy for the congregation to join in with everything I have a couple e of practical quibbles. Firstly I would feel the need to include music for the whole setting on the leaflet which would take considerably more space than just the response; secondly, I would want to still respect the differentiation of male and female sections. There is something about respecting the composer's wishes and perhaps more fundamentally liturgically is something about difference and relationships - something different is at play liturgically when we don''t all do everything. A quibble I don't necessarily have, but I know those who do - is that everyone sings the whole text you do not need the response. It is deliberate that our responsorial settings are used in the Autumn and at Christmas. The Angels and Saints is one shared by both Sunday Masses as a common setting for chapel. It also makes sense that as this is the term when we are most likely to have new members to use a responsorial setting — a similar logic can be applied to Christmas. Is the effectiveness of a response potentially off set if soe or all of the rest of the congregation is singing the whole text. The request has made me question our practice - and I am still considering how it will develop.