Last night I was wondering through some of the narrow winding streets of York in a light drizzle. I’d seen a sign in the York Minster (York’s huge cathedral), about evensong at 5:15, and since it was about that time, I wandered in and was directed to a section of the church with chairs running down two sides facing a center aisle. There was a magnificent organ, with stalactite-looking pipes ringing the room. A bell rang and about 60 high school students filed in and took their seats behind lighted candles on opposite sides of the aisle, facing each other. “It’s a girls choir,” the usher whispered to me, high school kids. They sang like angels, with wonderful organ accompaniment. The candles, the music, the sweet voices, it was a moment, in fact about a 10 minute moment. Then the priest walked in, da man, and started reading from the Bible, Lemme outta here! I slipped out the back into a kind of gated-off section, whereupon another priest arrived and graciously opened the door so I could get out into the main cathedral.
Evensong by candlelight in York Minster
Oh, you should have stayed. After the first and second readings there is a canticle and it sounds like the choir would have made them enjoyable. If you pop out after the nunc dimitis ("Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace …") you get to skip the prayers and sermon.