Journey into light

Easter Week ends with the ancient service of Great Paschal Vespers

The Gregorian Singers sang their annual service of Great Paschal Vespers on March 30 at St. Paul's on-the-Hill, St. Paul. Vicar Mark Thompson is at center, behind the Paschal Candle.   Photo: Tom Farrell

On Sunday evening, March 30, worshippers at St. Paul's on-the-Hill had the opportunity to step back and take a deep breath at the end of Easter Week, as the Gregorian Singers, directed by Monte Mason, offered their usual Sunday-after-Easter presentation of Great Paschal Vespers. This ancient liturgy, with its candlelight processions accompanied by incense and plainsong, serves as a kind of transition back to “ordinary” life after the intense events of Holy Week and Easter.

Great Paschal Vespers is based upon “the special processional vespers for Easter Week once traditional in the ancient basilicas of the city of Rome, as modified in subsequent centuries for use in parish churches, and conformed to the general pattern of the Order of Worship for the Evening.” It could be called the “other side” of the Holy Week service of Tenebrae. At Tenebrae, darkness falls as candles are extinguished. Great Paschal Vespers, however, begins in darkness and the light gradually returns throughout the liturgy.

The plainsong settings used in the Gregorian Singers' service were either composed or adapted from the Liber Usualis by Larry Reynolds. All chants were utilized to fit the needs of this specific liturgy, as found in The Prayer Book Office by Howard Galley. In this form, the liturgy was first sung in 1981 by the St. Gregory Society of Calvary Episcopal Church in Rochester, Minnesota, where Reynolds was then organist and choirmaster.

The Gregorian Singers have sung Great Paschal Vespers on the First Sunday after Easter since 1987, in various Episcopal churches in the Twin Cities. Next year's service will be presented on April 19, 2009.