One Saint For All Saints

St. Begga of Landen (615 - 17 December 693)

After an evening, spent singing a tricky High Mass by William Byrd at
St. James' Anglican, I forgot to post on All Saints' Day (yesterday).
In its place I present one saint.

St. Begga is purportedly a distant but direct grandmother/ancestor of
mine through my matriline - discovered during a research inquiry into
mitochondrial DNA and its implications for the social constructs of
womanhood and feminism.
Once widowed, she took the veil and founded seven churches and a
convent where she died and was buried. As a wealthy and powerful
woman, within the confines of her time, her greatest act possible was
religious patronage for which she was rewarded with sainthood.
Many people with a franca-matriline can trace their way back to this
saint - mother.

Exhibit

No. 0094 - 08 Oct 2011 - 15:05:23

Heart of the City

This neo-Gothic church building set in a neo-Dickensian downtown neighbourhood is St. James' Anglican* - frequent photographic muse, home to my beloved High Mass Choir (alto) and on Saturday, October 29, from 12 noon to 4 pm, host of an Open House for the Heart of the City festival.
It comes with a guided tour (12:30 pm), John Donne sermon in costume (1:30 pm), St. James' Music Academy performance (3 pm), photo exhibit (12:00 - 4 pm) and all for free!

* 303 East Cordova at Gore

Latino Lunch

No. 9942 - 06 Oct 2011 - 11:38:52 * No. 9984 - 06 Oct 2011 - 12:55:33

Ingrid Méndez de Cruz and her team prepare and serve lunch every Thursday in the crypt at St. James' Anglican especially for hispanic residents of the downtown.

Frozen Music

*I call architecture frozen music*

Goethe

While I travel within there is less quality time for the humanities and therefore little of value to communicate. However, home is just around the corner and the anticipation of work feels very humane.
This morning I am off to sing with the church choir at St. James' Anglican where I can test my courage by cantoring the Alleluia. To sing alone within the architectural vibrations of this particular edifice is breathtaking and edifying - and then I melt.

After Mass

No. 2001 - 25 Dec 2010 - 00:15:56

Untitled VII

No. 7601 - 11 Apr 2010 - 10:21:42

Return To Music

No. 1428 - 05 Apr 2008 - 07:33:23

Gastown, Vancouver

The St. James' High Mass Choir begins the autumn schedule with O Westron Wynde by Healey Willan which was first published, in 1936, at about the time this church was being built at the corner of Cordova and Gore. Devotees of music and architecture are welcome to join the service which begins at 10:30 am.

Inspired Contrast

No. 0056(3) - 15 Aug 2010 - 11:35:38

Music

No.0708-13Jun2010-13:44:14*No.0713-13Jun2010-13:45:00

Gastown, Vancouver

So ends the week of music at St. James' Anglican. The Sacred & Sassy event was a success and raised money for the eventual completion of the choir gallery renovation. Those souls who travel the city, visiting churches on Sunday mornings, in search of music and architecture should know that the choir is on summer break until September.

The images chosen for this post were taken at a recent church picnic at Portside Park and highlight the particular importance of music to this parish. The reason children can pull out violins at a picnic is due to the Saint James Music Academy which continues to offer music education in the neighbourhood. The music mission contributes to the over-all health and happiness of children as well as reminding the greater community that families live downtown.

Choir

No.6645-03Apr2010-22:23:22*No.6646-03Apr2010-22:23:30

Score

No. 6665 - 03 Apr 2010 - 23:33:38

Gastown, Vancouver

Haec dies by William Byrd is on the program for Sacred & Sassy tonight at 7:30 pm. It is a difficult piece of music to sing and will be no easier in front of an audience but nothing inspires like a challenge.

Choirmaster

No. 6666 - 03 Apr 2010 - 23:33:44

Duality

No.3535-22Jun2010-14:13:38*No.3536-22Jun2010-14:13:52

Organist

No. 3548 - 22 June 2010 - 14:16:40

Gastown, Vancouver

On the other side of the glass is an empty church filled with the timbre of a pipe organ playing divinely complicated music courtesy of, Assistant Organist, Bruce McKenzie.

During our upcoming concert on Friday, June 25, 2010 at 7:30 pm, we will sing from the front of the church like most choirs although normally we sit high up in the gallery behind the congregation and in front of the organist back up to the windows which are featured in the previous post. The event is, in fact, a benefit to raise money for the choir gallery's completion. The dessert, cabaret, and silent auction portion of the program will be in the Bishop's Hall adjoining.

Unstained Glass

No. 2529 - 04 March 2008 - 18:06:22

Gastown, Vancouver

Before I joined the choir at St. James' Anglican I took pictures of the building for its value as an architectural peculiarity and a neighbourhood artifact. One year later I would sit in the choir gallery, which lurks behind the window peaks, and look back out at Vancouver (the Provincial Law Courts to be precise). The image is a stranger to me now that I know what is behind the concrete and leaded glass; I feel differently looking back from the inside.

Soprano

No. 8092 - 30 May 2010 - 17:06:38

Gastown, Vancouver

This week I shall shamelessly flog the upcoming concert SACRED & SASSY - from the church to the cabaret - 7:30 pm, Friday, June 25, 2010 at St. James' Anglican Church, 303 Cordova Street, Vancouver (604-685-2532).

The High Mass Choir of St. James' Anglican Church presents favourite works from its sacred repertoire, along with an assortment of lighter fare.

Dessert and a silent auction will round out an entertaining evening in support of the choir gallery project at St. James.

Tickets: $15 adults / $12 seniors / $10 students available from choir members or at the door.

The soprano pictured above is our own Ruth Greenaway-Robbins. If you know me and have indicated that you will attend this event you have no better reason than to come hear one of the professional singers who anchor and elaborate our little group into something, sometimes profound. I, like Ruth, have been transformed by music.

Come for the music, meet the people.

Palm Sunday Parade

No. 9389 - 05 Apr 2009 - 11:10:20

Gastown, Vancouver

And so Holy Week begins on Sunday, March 28, 2010 with a parade around the block on East Cordova Street. It is an ecumenical event which includes Roman and Anglo Catholics at its start. Accompanied by the Carnival Band, the participants sing and wave palm fronds, drawing attention to a special moment in the church year. After dropping the romans off at St. Paul's, the anglos continue on to St. James where they reenter the church along with the band and their cacophonous outdoor sounds. Quietly at first but steadily and louder comes the rolling thunder of the mighty Casavant pipe organ, filling the edifice and everyone in it with its sonic vibrations and bringing everything to attention as the service commences seamlessly.

Come for the music and meet the community.

Epiphany on East Cordova Street

Cirrocumulus Cyclorama 17 May 2009 13:49:06

Gastown, Vancouver

*epiphany / 3 - a sudden and important manifestation or realization.

Although I grew up singing in church next to my father (a man with a perfect ear and fine baritone voice) the austerity of the United Church of Canada in the 1960's could not have prepared me for the atmosphere I stumbled into at St. James Anglican Church one year ago. This lofty, poured concrete building is a spiritual, and architectural expression of endurance during hard times: an artifact of the Great Depression . I knew it still to be a cornerstone of our troubled community but I was surprised to find there inside a cultural oasis filled with the sounds and sensations of pipe organ, choral song, and incense.

Within four weeks I was a member of the High Mass Choir: singing plain song, Palestrina, Byrd, Handel, Bruckner Fauré, Britten, and more. I discovered, during Lent, (the busiest church season of the year) that nothing compares to the sheer thrill, full body, spiritual rush of sight-singing difficult music as a newly hatched alto . It is the same joyride I discovered as a college student who dabbled in music courses and extra-curricular singing. What. A. Nerd.

Singing with the St. James High Mass Choir is an epiphany. Parish life gives a pleasant aspect to my neighbourhood where singing the Great Music of the Western Church is occasionally followed up by a pint at the Alibi Room or Irish Feather.

The Epiphany of The Lord Mass begins at 6:30pm, Wednesday, January 6, 2010 and will be followed by a potluck dinner, which is almost as fun as beer.

St. James Anglican Church is located at 303 East Cordova Street - come for the music.


*Canadian Oxford Dictionary