If only God had clearly decreed exactly what sort of music he wanted us to make in church. For uncertainty on this matter is highly problematic. If only he had said, for example, unaccompanied female voices on weekdays and an all-male choir on Sundays, with nothing composed before 1800 and no stringed instruments, except at Christmas. Or something else, similarly specific. The Calvinists of the sixteenth century decided that he had said something of this sort: no music at all, except for chanted Psalms. You can imagine the Dean of Sheffield Cathedral feeling a flicker of sympathy for this position.
For Sheffield Cathedral has announced that its choir is not working and needs a fresh start. On one level, the issue was simply low attendance: hardly anyone, sometimes no one, was attending weekday Evensong. It’s pretty popular at many other cathedrals, but not here.
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