Choral Celebration of Eastertide – Live streamed – Sunday 27 April 2025 6.00 pm
A separate video feed of the choir will be available here.
RISEN WITH CHRIST
A sequence of music and readings to Celebrate Eastertide
Led by Revd Chi Opal
PROLOGUE
Reading: Unless a Seed Dies Ann Lewin
Introit: Victimae paschal laudes
Victimae paschali laudes immolent Christiani.
Christians, praise the paschal victim! Offer thankful sacrifice.
Agnus redemit oves, Christus innocens Patri reconciliavit peccatores.
Christ the Lamb has saved the sheep, Christ the just one paid the price reconciling sinners to the Father.
Mors et vita duello conflixere Mirando: dux vitae mortuus regnat vivus.
Death and life fought bitterly for this wondrous victory; the Lord of life who died reigns glorified!
Dicnobis, Maria, quid vidisti in via?
O Mary come and say what you saw at break of day.
Sepulchrum Christi viventis, et gloriam vidi resurgentis:
The empty tomb of my living Lord!
Angelicos testes, sudarium et vestes.
Bright angels testified, shroud and grave-clothes side by side!
Surrexit Christus spes mea: praecedet suos in Galilaeum.
‘Yes, Christ my hope rose gloriously. He goes before you into Galilee.’
Scimus Christum surrexisse a mortuis vere: tu nobis, victor Rex, Miserere.
Share the good news, sing joyfully: his death is victory!
Lord, Jesus, victor King, show us mercy. Amen.
Surrexit Christus alleluia! Cantata Domino, alleluia!
Christ is risen, Sing to the Lord.
James O’Donnell
CCL31580
OPENING DIALOGUE
Leader: Alleluia! Christ is risen:
All: He is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ:
He has given us new life and hope!
He has made us al light to the world!
God has claimed us as his own:
He has brought us out of darkness!
He has made us a light to the world!
Alleluia! Christ is risen:
He is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Hymn: Christ is the King! O friends rejoice
Christ is the King! O friends rejoice;
Brothers and sisters with one voice
Tell all the earth he is your choice:
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
O magnify the Lord, and raise
Anthems of joy and holy praise
For Christ’s brave saints of ancient days:
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Let love’s unconquerable might
Your scattered companies unite
In service to the Lord of light:
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
So shall God’s will on earth be done,
New lamps be lit, new tasks begun,
And the whole Church at last be one:
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
G. K. A. Bell, 1883-1958
CCL31580
THE LORD IS MY STRENGTH AND MY SONG
Reading: Exodus 14:21-22; 15:1-2, 13, 17-18
Choir: Psalm 114
When Israel came out of Egypt: and the house of Jacob among the strange people,
Judah was his sanctuary and Israel his dominion.
The seas saw that and fled: Jordan was driven back.
The mountains skipped like rams: and the little hills like young sheep?
What aileth thee O thou sea that thou fleddest:
and thou Jordan that thou was driven back?
Ye mountains that ye skipped like rams: and ye little hills, like young sheep?
Tremble thou earth at the presence of the God of Jacob:
Who turned the hard rock into a standing water:
and the flintstone into a springing well.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost:
As it was in the beginning is now and shall ever be, world without end.
Amen.
Edward Bairstow
CCL31580
Hymn: Come ye faithful, raise the strain
Come ye faithful, raise the strain
Of triumphant gladness!
God has brought his Israel
Into joy from sadness;
Loosed from Pharoah’s bitter yoke
Jacob’s sons and daughters;
Led them with un-moistened foot
Through the Red Sea waters.
Tis the spring of souls today;
Christ hath burst his prison,
And from three day’s sleep in death
As a sun hath risen:
All the winter of our sins,
Long and dark, is flying
From his light, to whom we give
Laud and praise undying.
Alleluia now we cry
To our King immortal,
Who triumphant burst the bars
Of the tomb’s dark portal.
Alleluia, with the Son
God the Father praising;
Alleluia yet again
To the spirit raising.
St. John of Damascus, 675-754
CCL31580
SEE, THE WINTER IS PAST
Reading: Song of Songs 2:8-17
Hymn: Now the green blade riseth
Now the green blade riseth from the buried grain,
wheat that in dark earth many days has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.
Men:
In the grave they laid him, Love whom we had slain,
Thinking that never he would wake again,
Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.
Ladies:
Forth he came at Easter, like the risen grain,
He that for three days in the grave had lain,
Quick from the dead my risen Lord is seen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.
All:
When our hearts are wintry, grieving or in pain,
Thy touch can call us back to life again,
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.
John Macleod Campbell Crum, 1872-1958
CCL31580
SEEKING THE RISEN CHRIST
Reading: St John 20:1-8
Reading: The Answer R. S. Thomas
Choir: O God, thou art my God
O God, thou art my God: early will I seek thee.
My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh also longeth after thee.
In a barren and dry land where no water is.
Thus have I look’d for thee in holiness,
that I might behold thy pow’r and glory.
For thy loving kindness is better than life itself: my lips shall praise thee. As long as I live will I magnify thee on this manner
and lift up my hands in thy Name, because thou hast been my helper, therefore under the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. Hallelujah.
Henry Purcell
CCL31580
Hymn: Love’s redeeming work is done
Love’s redeeming work is done,
fought the fight, the battle won.
Lo, our Sun’s eclipse is o’er!
Lo, he sets in blood no more!
Vain the stone, the watch, the seal!
Christ has burst the gates of hell;
death in vain forbids him rise;
Christ has opened paradise.
Lives again our victorious King;
where, O death, is now thy sting?
Dying once, he all doth save;
where thy victory, O grave?
Hail the Lord of earth and heaven!
Praise to thee by both be given:
thee we greet triumphant now;
hail, the Resurrection thou!
Charles Wesley, 1707-88
CCL31580
FINDING THE RISEN CHRIST
Reading: St John 20:11-18
Reading: Easter Morning, R. Newcombe
Choir: When Mary through the garden went
When Mary thro’ the garden went, there was no sound of any bird,
And yet, because the night was spent, the little grasses lightly stirred,
The flowers awoke, the lilies heard. When Mary thro’ the garden went,
The dew lay still on flower and grass, the waving palms above her sent
Their fragrance out as she did pass. No light upon their branches was.
When Mary thro’ the garden went, her eyes were dim.
The grass beneath her footsteps bent, the solemn lilies, white and slim,
These also stood and wept for him. When Mary thro’ the garden went,
She sought within the garden ground, one for Whom her heart was rent,
One Who for her sake was bound, one Who sought, and she was found.
Charles Stanford
CCL31580
Hymn: Magdalene thy grief and gladness
Magdalene thy grief and gladness
Voice and heart in concert sing
Telling how the risen Saviour
Called to thee from thy sorrowing,
Tidings of his Resurrection
To his chosen flock to bring.
She beheld him, yet she knew not
In the gardener’s seeming guise
Christ, who in her heart was sowing
Seed of heavenly mysteries,
Till his voice her name pronouncing.
Bade her see and recognise.
Weep not, Mary, weep no longer!
Now the seeking heart may rest;
Christ the heavenly gardener soweth
Light and joy within the breast:
In the glowing light “Rabboni!”
By thy gratitude confest.
Philippe de Greve, 1160-1236
CCL31580
BELIEVING IN THE RISEN CHRIST
Reading: St John 20:19-29
Choir: Christ the Lord is Risen Again
Christ the Lord is risen again! Christ hath broken ev’ry chain!
Hark, the angels shout for joy, singing evermore on high: Alleluia!
He who gave for us his life, who for us endured the strife,
is our Paschal Lamb today! We too sing for joy and say: Alleluia!
He who bore all pain and loss, comfortless upon the cross
lives in glory now on high pleads for us, and hears our cry: Alleluia!
Now he bids us tell abroad how the lost may be restored,
how the penitent forgiv’n, how we too may enter heav’n. Alleluia!
Thou, our Paschal Lamb indeed, Christ, today thy people feed;
take our sins and guilt away, that we all may sing for ay: Alleluia!
John Rutter, 1945-
CCL31580
EMBRACING THE RISEN CHRIST
Reading: An Easter Embrace
Choir: Worthy is the Lamb (Messiah)
Worthy is the lamb that was slain and hath redeemed us to God by his blood,
to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour and
glory. Blessing and honour, glory, and pow’r be unto him,
that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. Amen.
G. F. Handel, 1685-1759
CCL31580
Blessing: Revd Chi Okpala
Hymn: Light’s glittering morn bedecks the sky
Light’s glittering morn bedecks the sky;
Heaven thunders forth its victory-cry: Alleluia!
The glad earth shouts her triumph high,
And groaning hell makes wild reply: Alleluia!
His tomb of late the threefold guard
O watch and stone and seal had barred: Alleluia!
But now, in pomp and triumph high,
He comes from death to victory: Alleluia!
This Eastertide with joy was bright,
The sun shone out with fairer light: Alleluia!
When, to their longing eyes restored,
The glad apostles saw their Lord: Alleluia!
All praise be thine, O risen Lord,
From death to endless life restored:
All praise to God the Father be
And Holy Ghost eternally: Alleluia!
Translator: J. M. Neale, 1818-66
CCL31580