Chapel Services
Members of the public are warmly invited to attend any of our morning or evening services throughout the week. Details of musical settings, hymns, and readings can be found in the Chapel Services and Music List, Trinity Term 2019.
Sunday Services in Full Term
11.00am Sung Eucharist
This choral celebration of Holy Communion includes congregational hymns, a sermon, and a musical setting sung by the Choir. It usually lasts just over an hour. Those of any and all denominations are welcome to receive Communion in Chapel; it’s equally fine to attend and not take Communion. The service is followed by lunch and wine or a soft drink in the New Room, to which all are invited.
6.00pm Choral Evensong
Perhaps the most distinctively Anglican of all church services is Evensong, which took shape in the sixteenth century when the medieval orders for Vespers and Compline were combined, in the Book of Common Prayer, to create a new service. Evensong at Magdalen uses the traditional language of the 1662 Prayer Book and it offers the opportunity to hear a great variety of musical settings of the canticles (Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis), along with a wide range of anthems and psalm chants. This service typically lasts around 40 minutes, or 50 minutes on Saturday and Sunday when it includes congregational hymns. On Sundays, the service is followed by refreshments in the Antechapel.
Services from Monday to Saturday in Full Term
Services in bold type are sung by the Choir.
Monday
8.15 am Morning Prayer
6.00 pm Choral Evensong (sung by Frideswide Voices)
Tuesday
8.15 am Morning Prayer
6.00 pm Choral Evening Prayer (sung by the Choristers only)
Wednesday
8.15 am Morning Prayer
6.00pm Choral Evensong
Thursday
8.15 am Morning Prayer
6.00 pm Choral Evensong
Friday
8.15 am Morning Prayer
6.00 pm Choral Evening Prayer (sung by the Academical Clerks only)
(9.00 pm Sung Compline (Night Prayer) is sung a couple of times each term)
Saturday
6.00 pm Choral Evensong (usually sung by the Consort of Voices)
Frideswide Voices is a girl choristers’ choir directed by Will Dawes. Established in 2014 under the auspices of The Frideswide Foundation, a charitable trust, the choir promotes opportunities for girls, aged between 7 and 14, to sing within the liturgy in Oxford college chapels. This term they will be ‘in residence’ at Magdalen and singing Evensong on Mondays in term.
