Christ the King

Chapel of Christ the King, HMP Forest Bank, Salford

Entrance Majesty
Gospel Acclamation Easter Alleluia (chant)
Preparation of the Gifts Make me a channel of your peace
Sanctus to the tune of Amazing Grace
Communion As the deer pants
Recessional Hail Redeemer, King Divine

Daniel Bath and I led the music for the 9 am Mass in Forest Bank Prison today. Daniel and I share the direction of the prisoners’ choir, which meets one morning a week. Although the choir wasn’t performing this morning, several of its members were in the congregation, and between us we sang well. The principal celebrant was Bishop Brain of Salford, who represents the Bishops of England and Wales on the subject of prisons.

Faced with an absence of shared repertoire when it came to settings of the Eucharistic Acclamations, we devised one in last week’s choir practice, setting the words from the Missal to the tune (New Britain) of Amazing Grace. It’s a tune everyone knows, and, minus the anacruses, it’s a decent fit for the Missal text. This seemed to us a better idea than dredging up one of the old dismal paraphrased settings, and the two-minute run-through before Mass was enough to allow the willing congregation to pick it up.

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