This is the sermon that I preached for the beginning of the choir year yesterday afternoon at Evensong (6th September 2026). It seems to me to give a manifesto of why we do what we do and why it is important. The readings were the Second Service readings for the feast of Creation in Christ.
Readings: Ezekiel 47:1-12 - Water flowing from the Temple.
Revelation 22:1-5 - The River of the Water of Life flowing from the Throne of God
May I speak in the name of God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today is a day of new beginnings, and it has been so wonderful to welcome our new choristers and scholars, and welcome back familiar faces after a summer break. And what a summer it has been! Scorching heat has made the grass brown, wild fires have broken out in many places, and we’ve seen parched land, dying plants, and the trees dropping their leaves. But this has given us a taste of just how important water is to us, and what happens when we are without rain. Which leads me to our reading from Ezekiel.
We heard the prophet speaking of water flowing from the temple in Jerusalem, turning from a trickle into a mighty river and eventually becoming so deep that fish swim in it. Wherever the water goes, life springs up; people catch fish to eat and play by the water; fruit appears and medicinal plants grow that bring healing to those in pain.
Now the thing is: Jerusalem unlike many cities isn’t built around a river, there are springs and streams, but it is a dry place, where water is precious, so the vision of this stream must have been a truly exciting thing. But this water isn’t coming from the offices of the government or the market place, It is coming from the temple. God’s house. The place of worship - And one day, years later, Jesus stands in that same temple and cries out “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink, 'Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.'” - And John explains that Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit of God, the Life-Giver, the One who puts breath into our body and inspires our song.
Now it seems to me that this reading from Ezekiel is such a gift at the beginning of a new choir year, because it is a reminder that what we do here in this place, doesn’t stay here. Our worship and our song, inspired by the Spirit of God, flows out from here and brings life and joy and hope and beauty in a world which is crying for it. A world which is sad and which can be hope-less and ugly.
Now did you know that when a broadcast is made on the radio, the sound travels beyond this planet of ours, and it goes on and on and on and out into space. The first BBC National Radio broadcast of Choral Evensong happened on the 7th October 1926, one hundred years ago. The sound of that broadcast travels at the speed of light and so those sound waves are now 100 light years (that’s 588 trillion miles) away from Earth somewhere in the constellation of Andromeda, those echoes of the praise of the choristers of 100 years ago…and when it is your turn too to make another broadcast your sound too will go out not just into all the earth, but beyond our galaxy!
Now when I was Team Vicar and Precentor in Leeds we used to take the Minster choir to Leeds General Infirmary on Christmas Eve. It was a big echoey building, and everyone in that hospital was there because they were really ill. They tried to get everyone else home for Christmas: There were tiny tiny babies who had only just been born, and there were people at the very end of their lives slipping away gently while someone else held their hand. We split into three teams and sang around the wards and everywhere the song went, everywhere the sound travelled, tears sprang from people’s eyes. Some smiled at me and they said “These are happy tears!”
You see choir, you will sing, and water will spring forth!
You will release emotions which have been trapped, and you will bring joy and peace to restless hearts, just as the young shepherd David, when he played his harp 3000 years ago brought healing and comfort to King Saul in his mental distress.
You see, this is the power of your song. Use that power for good.
But actually this isn’t just the about the power of our song, it is the power of our worship. Day by day on a wet Wednesday or a glorious summer afternoon, we meet here, and we sing words of Scripture over people.
We tell people that death is not the end.
We tell people that they are not alone.
We tell people that they are loved beyond measure and we hold the hurting within that embrace of God’s eternal love.
We tell people that evil people will not be in power forever and the mighty and cruel will be cast from their thrones.
We tell people that wars will end and justice will come.
And we push back the darkness in the world until people see the light.
And so, we remind people that darkness will never have the final say.
And this prayer that we do...this daily rhythm of song and scripture, this is the battery that charges everything else that the cathedral does. It is our heartbeat.
And as our prayer and our worship flows out, life comes.
Those who have no faith find it, and those who have faith get the energy to spend their lives in serving and healing others.
This is bigger than us.
We are simply singing the next verse in a song which has been sung since before the beginning of time, then carried by the temple, and continued by the monasteries and on to the churches and cathedrals and it is such a privilege to sing it.
So enjoy this new beginning, enjoy this journey, and praise God, Praise God in the lute and harp, praise God in the clashing cymbals, and let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Amen.
