Music

Music strengthens and enhances the worship experience, and at All Saints’, music is closely interwoven into the liturgy. This is particularly true for the Sung or High Mass on Sunday mornings. The Ordinary of the Mass is sung to the familiar and traditional setting of John Merbecke, dating from 1550, as arranged for the 1962 Book of Common Prayer by the well-known Canadian Anglican composer Healey Willan (1880-1968). The ancient Minor Propers (Introit, Gradual, Alleluia/Tract, Offertory sentence, and Communion antiphon) are chanted from The English Gradual of Francis Burgess, who was Musical Director of the Gregorian Association (London, England) from 1910 until 1948.
At services of Choral Evensong, the Psalms, Canticles, Versicles, and Responses are chanted from the Anglican Chant edition of The Canadian Psalter (1963).

Hymns for all services are drawn from the traditional Canadian Anglican hymnal, The Book of Common Praise (1938), and the choir sings occasional anthems, thematically linked to the liturgy of the day, which are selected from a wide variety of musical resources.

All Saints has a fine pipe organ, recently rebuilt (specifications available), and is fortunate to have the services of a skilled and dedicated Organist and Music Director. The SATB choir is made up of talented singers, and leads the hymns and the chanting. Congregational participation is actively encouraged.

The organ provides a solid musical foundation for both the hymns and the service music, and the organist contributes both a Prelude and Postlude every Sunday, except during Lent and Passiontide.