The Choir's UK Pilgrimage

In July 2014, St. Martin's Choir went on a pilgrimage to the UK as part of our 125th anniversary celebration.  We were the choir-in-residence at Exeter Cathedral for a week, then sang Sunday services at our namesake, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London.  The choir did beautifully, and the experience is one that we'll cherish for the rest of our lives.  St. Martin's (Philly) was so supportive as we prepared for our journey - thank you!  I hope this brief narrative will help you to travel with us in your mind's eye.

 

I suppose I should begin by explaining that the choir spent three long, hot, sweaty June evenings preparing for this journey (not to mention the countless other rehearsals throughout the spring of 2014).  Psalm texts were much different from the ones we know, and the hymns were also unfamiliar.  We worked hard to prepare, and it paid off.

Sunday, July 20th - The choir met at Heathrow Airport, just outside of London.  We were not on the same flight – we came from many different cities, flying at many different times. Miraculously, all 37 of us made it to the meeting place on time (that is, no major flight delays!), and even more miraculously, only one poor soul (Krys Cooper) had her luggage lost.

 

We got on the coach, headed toward our first destination – Exeter!  But first, a side trip to Stonehenge.  There has been significant research on Stonehenge in the last few decades, and the findings have challenged many of the popular beliefs about the site.  It became somewhat of a joke to the choir – because different scholars argue that Stonehenge was just about anything you can imagine – a calendar, a forum, a religious place, a tomb, a memorial, a shrine, (a tourist destination …)  To this day, huge solstice festivals are held here.  Contrary to popular belief, it was not a Druid shrine; however it was adopted by the Druids and continues to be an important part of their culture.

After a very nice stop, we continued on to Exeter.  I think everybody passed out on the bus!  We arrived at our hotel in Exeter – the Royal Clarence Hotel.  This old building had the claim of being the first hotel in the UK – we heard this story no less than 10 times while visiting Exeter!  Previously, all rooms-for-rent were called “inns” in England, but the Royal Clarence was the first to adopt the term “Hotel”.  Anyway, the old building had a very interesting room layout (!), and I'm convinced that our room slanted quite a bit, but it was a very nice place to stay and the people there were just wonderful.

Monday was our first opportunity to enjoy the Full English Breakfast – this is a traditional, high-protein breakfast that fueled our high-activity days throughout the week.  It includes toast, baked beans, eggs, bacon, sausage, mushrooms, tomatoes, and black pudding (if you don't know, don't ask), and sometimes other options like fried bread (really).

Monday's activities included a walking tour of Exeter – a most fascinating town.  It was settled before the Romans, who (naturally) conquered it and fortified it – the wall still stands today (and not just stands – surrounds the city, and probably won't fall for centuries more.)  It grew to great wealth from the wool trade in the late medieval area, but fell into poverty during the industrial revolution.  The tour guides were volunteers, and were incredibly knowledgeable, friendly, and had a real passion for the history of their city.

We also had a tour of Exeter Cathedral, where we would be sing services throughout the week. 

Stunning!  The cathedral was first built in 1050, but 16 years later, the Normans conquered England, and a new cathedral was built.  Shortly after it was built, it went out of style, and the newest cathedral was completed around 1400 (retaining two large towers from the Norman cathedral).  Notable things in this cathedral include a very early astronomical clock, the 2nd heaviest ring of bells in England, the amazing decorative ceiling, and a very very long nave!

Monday's evensong was for the eve of the feast of St. Mary Magdalen.  We spent the first bit of time acquainting ourselves with the order of service (slightly different) and the procession (also different).  We quickly discovered that we would be struggling all week with an organ which made things difficult!  The pipe organ was in the repair shop, and the substitute was an electronic organ which was difficult to hear (and the organist couldn't hear us at all!) and was full of bad notes and funny noises.  Parker Kitterman, our organist, did an excellent job overcoming these obstacles, and our choir did as well (they are a smart group, after all), and we sang a great service for a crowd of 40 or so.  (throughout the week, our congregations were between 30 and 50 people, which is a good number for summer weekday services!  The congregations included young and old, different social classes, and sometimes included tour groups from other European countries.)

We celebrated the evening by going out to a local pub, the Ship Inn.  As it was a Monday, business was a little slow, and they were gracious and stayed open for us.  I think they didn't regret it since we brought them a lot of business throughout the week!




Tuesday – our day began with a trip to Lyme Regis, a beautiful coastal town with a small but pleasant beach, lots of little shops.  This adventure began with a very long walk down a cliff – on steps of course.  There was a long, (historic, of course) stone barrier, known as "the cobb", that created a little bay area for ships.  Visitors could walk out on the cobb and enjoy the breeze and a lovely view of the English channel.  After our visit, we returned to Exeter and sang the feast of St. Mary Magdalen – a completely different order of service to adapt to, but once again, our singers pulled through and kept up!  Boy, did they use incense – there was a thick blue cloud above us during the service – thankfully, there were no casualties.  Afterwards, so many of us returned to the Ship Inn that they actually ran out of Fish and Chips!

Wednesday's main event was a trip to Plymouth, where we saw the place where the pilgrims set off for Massachusetts back in 1620.  We found that a number of our choir had done some genealogical research and knew their ancestors which were on the Mayflower – and we found their names.  After this, we saw “the hoe”, a large flat area which gave a marvelous view of the sea, plus a lighthouse with some very very steep steps, which some of us climbed for a thrilling experience (there was very little rail at the top to prevent one from falling!)

A real highlight for me was the tiny village of Princetown, sitting smack in the middle of the moor, where we stopped for lunch en route back to Exeter.  This little town of no more than 50 houses had its own brewery and a large prison – the town was founded when they built the prison, back in the mid 19th century.  Why build a prison here?  With nothing – nothing – around it for miles, no prisoner could hope to escape, I suppose.  The highlight (for me at least) was the marvelous accent that our bartender had – I wondered if it was real or fabricated; it sounded right out of Monty Python.  This bartender was quite loquacious, and ultimately he confessed to us that his dream was to go to Florida, but that he probably won't ever get there.  Jen Weinstein (who is a Florida resident, but forever a St. Martin's soprano) offered to send him a hat of his favorite Florida team – we certainly made his day!

That evening, we had just a regular evensong – in fact, the only “ordinary time” evensong that week.  But to keep things interesting, the cathedral closed one of the gates due to construction, so we had to learn a completely different way to process.  On top of that, they regularly rotated their staff so we never really knew who would be there in the evening!  I should mention though, that the staff there were absolutely fabulous, friendly, accommodating, and laid back.  They were absolutely delightful to work with.

By Thursday, we were tired and were definitely showing it!  In the morning, we had a very exciting bus ride, including a 1-mile section of road barely wide enough to walk through – yet somehow the locals managed to drive their cars past our bus as we navigated this 6-foot wide road.  Especially amazing was when our bus narrowly squeezed between a building and a wall – there was less than 1 in of clearance on either side.  Naturally, he was given a huge round of applause after making it through unscathed.  We visited Compton Castle, which was a small manor house, later fortified into a beautiful, cozy castle.  The gardens were something out of a fairy tale.  Quite a few of us declared that “we could live there, if necessary.”

Upon returning to Exeter, a number of us went on a tour of the Cathedral roof, and discovered that it had partially collapsed years ago, and the beams of the roof were leaning nearly 7 feet – that is, the base of each beam is 7 feet eastward of the top of each beam – frightening to look at.  But it's been this way for at least 150 years, so no biggie, right?  We then had a lovely “cream tea”, courtesy of the cathedral staff.  Finally, we concluded the day with an evensong on the eve of St. James – two of our singers had become ill, the weather had turned quite sour (I should mention, though, it was the only rain we ever saw during our stay.)  We still managed to sing just fine.

Friday was a much-needed free day.  Some people shopped, many of us visited any remaining local sites of interest.  Exeter was a fantastic place to spend the week – it was a real English city, with all the charms one might expect.  Our final service was the feast of St. James, which went especially well, I believe.  Again, you could barely see the sun for all the incense floating around.  The staff thanked us for our time as choir-in-residence and invited us back.  Again, they were just delightful.

Saturday ended up being a very long bus ride to London.  This was a case of “the perfect storm”.  Our bus' air conditioning and circulation fans broke down shortly after our trip began.  This made things slightly uncomfortable, but manageable.  Unfortunately though, we arrived in London during a massive protest (dealing with the violence in Gaza).  Our bus moved about 10 miles in 3 hours.  It was nearly 90 degrees out – near record highs for London – with no circulation and no windows that open (after all, why would you need windows that open, when a typical summer day in London might mean temperatures no higher than 60?)  Needless to say, we were miserable.  But we survived, and arrived at our hotel, and had a dinner together.

On Sunday, we sang at our namesake, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, THE St. Martin's, in Trafalgar square.  I had a sense from my communications with them, that they are a very similar parish to ours.  I confirmed this in my time there – they are very progressive, active, spirited, and a little bit “wacky”.  Morning Eucharist had a full congregation, and a wide representation of races.  They really sang the hymns, and the sermon by Rev. Katherine Hedderly was excellent.  They had a very lively coffee hour and we were able to meet a number of their vestry and their staff.  They were absolutely wonderful and delightful to spend time with.  Evensong was by far our best “performance”, which thankfully was recorded.  Attendance was a little less than the morning; however, outside the church the crowds stretched all over the square.

We celebrated the end of our pilgrimage that evening at the tackiest restaurant I have ever seen, Salieri's on the Strand.  I can say this with confidence, because clearly they worked hard to achieve this level of ugly, and it is marvelous!  The food was delicious, and the evening entertainment was a short humorous narrative, sung to Anglican chant, which I'll include here:

In the year of our Lord two thousand fourteen
(In roman numerals, that's MMXIV)
St. Martin's celebrated its quaquiscentennial
and the choir went on tour.

When our plane landed among the strange people,
we made our way to Exeter.
We sang daily services at the cathedral;
we set not up our horn on high, neither sang we with stiff necks.

Evenings were spent in the pub;
some people stayed out till four AM.
We lost a robe; Krys took ill;
(whispered) Michael lost his voice.

We hath learned to process through the golden gates,
and then the next day they were closed.
Parker, get your hard hat, and we apologize: you can't see the director.
Well, no one watches him anyway.

Then we made our way to London,
but the Lord God doth send down his wrath upon us.
He hath taken away our Mercedes
and hath given us the stuff hot bus from Hell.

Here we are in London. Well almost. Taking a driving tour in our stuffy hot bus.
Demonstrations. Diverted traffic. Oh look!  Some one has a map!
Let's go around the corner.  Here we are.
Air conditioning comes neither from the east, west, south, or north.

Sunday services at St. Martin's:
Does anybody know this hymn tune?
At least there's no brass budgie.
Has any one seen my shoes?

Glory be to the Abode and to the Palace Strand,
and to the British Airways:
as we gathered in the beginning, may we now safely depart
from this our tour without end.  Amen.

Using mere words, I'm not able to capture a major part of this pilgrimage - the jokes, the laughing, the excitement of singing there, the friendships formed, the nights out in the pub.  The experience is much more than a narrative of going places and doing things - it's about being human, enjoying the company of others, and spreading the gospel through music.

I do believe that this pilgrimage will stay close in our hearts the rest of our lives.  And as much fun as it was to sing in an ancient cathedral, indeed we are part of a living faith, a living tradition, and I pray that our voices have been a source of hope, peace, and love, to our friends across the sea as well as those in our own town.

-Erik Meyer, Director of Music