Several students from St Charles’ Seminary in Guildford have recently undertaken a course on the Reformation at the University of Notre Dame.
Part of their studies included a detailed study of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer.
The book was first published in 1549 after the break from Rome.
The Seminary’s good friend, Rev Dr Philip Raymont, who is the chaplain of nearby Guildford Grammar School, suggested that the school’s schola could come and sing Evensong from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.
The incomparable English of Archbishop Cranmer’s Evensong filled the seminary chapel as did a representative selection of Anglican choral music.
After Evensong, the seminarians and visitors from Guildford Grammar, an independent Anglican school that traces its origins back to 1896, enjoyed a meal together.
For the seminary community, the occasion was not only educational, but also a practical expression of how Blessed Pope John Paul II described ecumenism as the “sharing of spiritual gifts”.