HOLY WEEK FESTIVAL 2015

March 23rd—April 5th

MALMESBURY ABBEY

Comedy

Silent Cinema

Science

Blues & Jazz

Art & Photography

Café & Garden Labyrinth

BBC Wiltshire

Royal Academy of Music

Prayer

Handel’s Messiah (Part II)

Every morning my cat, Zach, leaps over the wall from Abbey House Gar-

dens and takes exactly the same route to his cat flap. Over years a little rut

has developed in the lawn where he carefully plants his paws. I suspect,

given time, a similar groove will appear on the route I take from the vicar-

age to my large 12th century office in the centre of town. I am there an aw-

ful lot, it’s a tremendous place to work, and I am grateful to my colleagues

in the 7th century who first set up shop and started praying there.

However most months I meet somebody who lives or works in Malmes-

bury and has never set foot inside the Abbey. I get it, of course. Massive

12th century religious buildings don’t always come across as warmly invit-

ing—even if they have an amazing café hidden inside. So our Holy Week

Festival each year, focusing on the creative and performing arts, is de-

signed to make our invitation a little bit more explicit.

Prayer and singing songs at Easter may not be your thing, but what about

comedy, jazz, blues, science, classical music, coffee, wine, silent movies, art

or an Easter Egg Hunt? (The latter is for children.)

Have a look through the brochure. You are really welcome to come to as

much as you like. Some of the events, particularly the comedy, jazz, science

and silent movie will be really busy. Tickets, where necessary, are available

in the Abbey or at:

www.ticketsource.co.uk/malmesburyabbey

VICAR’S BLOG//welcome

Enquiries 01666 826666 // Box Office 01666 824339

office@malmesburyabbey.com

www.malmesburyabbey.com

issuu.com/malmesburyabbey

THE GARDEN

LABYRINTH//prayer

STATIONS OF THE CROSS//art

The Abbey Holy Week labyrinth is a spiritual explora-

tion that leads pilgrims slowly around a circular maze

on which they pause and encounter ancient texts, sym-

bolic actions and reflections for personal development.

This year Sandra Chin and the team have reinvented

this medieval Christian practice as a tree-lined journey

leading from one garden to another—Eden to Geth-

semane—and ultimately to a Tree of Life. From March

23rd to 28th The Garden Labyrinth is open when the

Abbey is open—allow yourself up to an hour; it is suit-

able for children. On March 25th & 27th the labyrinth

will be candlelit and open all evening with a café.

Each year, as part of their course work, A-level art stu-

dents from Malmesbury School challenge us to look dif-

ferently at the Stations of the Cross, art depicting Christ’s

journey in the final hours before his crucifixion. Join the

artists on Saturday 28th March at 10am as they reveal the

story behind their interpretations, or simply come in over

Holy Week & Easter and spend time with a great new

body of work.

FRONT COVER

Station XIV:Jesus laid in the tomb

by Hannah Robinson

THIS PAGE

Birch by Harry Harris/Flickr 321757275

INSIDE BACK COVER

Barbed Wire by Steve R Watson

Flickr/3538705633

‘If I was a joke thief, I would be shin-

ning up Paul Kerensa’s drainpipe.’

Milton Jones (Mock the Week)

‘Uniquely funny and interesting. TV

comedy is richer for Paul being a

part of it.’ Miranda Hart (Miranda,

Call the Midwife)

The comedian Paul Kerensa is a

writer for BBC1’s Miranda and Not

Going Out, among countless oth-

ers. An in-demand comic, who has

played the Edinburgh Fringe and

the Montreal Comedy Festival,

Paul is equally at home playing

comedy clubs or cathedrals and is

one of the few to have appeared

both at London’s Comedy Store

and on Radio 2’s Pause For

Thought. Now a decade into his

stand-up career, Paul’s one-man

show has played to packed-out

clubs, churches and other venues

over the last few years, including

festivals such as Greenbelt and

New Wine.

Bar & Café from 7pm

Ticket details next page

PAUL KERENSA//comedy Saturday 28th March, 7.30pm

with

ROSIE ARCHER &

PETER JAMES//jazz

Supporting Paul Kerensa, at

what promises to be a very

special night out at the Abbey,

is Malmesbury’s own Rosie

Archer. Fresh from The Malmes-

bury Nativity and from perform-

ing and recording Benjamin

Till’s Brass with the National

Youth Music Theatre of Great

Britain, Rosie brings to life jazz

classics from Etta James, James

Brown and Billie Holliday, ac-

companied by Peter James,

pianist with the Peter James

Trio, described by Jazz UK

Magazine as ’beautifully me-

lodic and quite captivating.’ .

They’ll both be back on Sunday

night exploring the blues with

Kairos Ensemble, see over.

Admission £5,

£3 (Students & Under 18s)

Tickets from the Abbey or at

www.ticketsource.co.uk/malmesburyabbey

Kairos Ensemble returns to Malmesbury Abbey to perform

music from their latest release, Rejoicing Blues. ‘One of the

most delightful albums of 2013’ Jazz Journal. ‘A collection of

beautifully-played, inventive and vibrant tunes, Rejoicing

Blues is itself an inspiration.’ Bruce Lindsay, All About Jazz.

This special concert also features guest vocalist Rosie Archer

on music including Kairos Ensemble’s previous recording,

Passion Suite, a composition written by pianist Peter James

based on the Easter narrative. ‘Beautiful music’ Julian Joseph,

Jazz Line-Up, Radio 3.

Kairos Ensemble are Peter James (piano), Dan Foster (sax,

Pasadena Roof Orchestra, David Byrne), Richard Fox (tuba,

London Sinfonietta, June Tabor), and Tom Hooper (drums,

Christian Garrick, Simple Minds, Johnny Dankworth.)

KAIROS ENSEMBLE//

blues & jazz Sunday 29th March at 7.30pm

ww

March 23rd to 28th

The Garden Labyrinth all day

Café open 9am-4pm

9am Morning Prayer, each day

Wednesday 25th March

5pm-9.30pm Late Night Garden Laby-

rinth by candlelight, with café

9.30pm Late Night Glory!

Friday 27th March

5pm-9.30pm Late Night Garden Laby-

rinth by candlelight, with café

9.30pm Night Prayer with Plainsong

Saturday 28th March

9am Morning Prayer

10am Meet the Artists: Stations of the

Cross

7.30pm Paul Kerensa (comedy) with

Rosie Archer & Peter James (jazz),

hosted by John Monaghan.

Palm Sunday

9am BCP Holy Communion

10.30am Outdoor Communion

4pm Café Service & Junior Church

7.30pm Kairos Ensemble (blues and

jazz)

2015 DIARY WEEK 1

Simon Conway Morris is a Professor of Evolutionary Palaeobiology

in the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of St John's.

His research interests include the Burgess Shale (summarized in The Cruci-

ble of Creation) and evolutionary convergence (tackled in Life's Solution and

more recently The Runes of Evolution). He was elected to the Royal Society in

1990, and is also active in public outreach. These include the 1996 Royal

Institution Christmas Lectures, websites (including Map of Life and forth-

coming FortyTwo), and the science-religion debates. Undisturbed he can

usually be found reading something by either G.K. Chesterton or the Ink-

lings, with a glass of wine (or something stronger) immediately to hand.

PROFESSOR SIMON CONWAY

MORRIS//Does the resurrection

make any scientific sense? Monday 30th March at 7.30pm

Professor Morris writes: ‘Worlds visible and invisible are familiar currency

to both scientists and theologians, but they refer to very different things.

Radio waves are not the same as bilocation. Scientists thrive on the pre-

dictable, but theologians keep an open mind about the unique, such as

the Resurrection. So no common ground? It all depends on your world-

picture. Animals can recognize numbers but can't do maths. Animals can

vocalize, but they cannot speak. Why the difference? There are several

possibilities, but if we are willing to take the immaterial as paradoxically

real, then we are invited to enter very different worlds.’

Café & Bar from 7pm

Admission Free. Tickets from the Abbey or at

www.ticketsource.co.uk/malmesburyabbey

Last year we packed the Abbey as the sun set and the lights were turned off.

Clutching a glass of wine, we watched as Lon Chaney’s Phantom of the Opera, in

an ever darkening building, rather blew us away. This year his 1923 epic The

Hunchback of Notre Dame will be projected onto the vast east wall. Again the

music won’t be pre-recorded but will be live and improvised as international

organist Anthony Hammond, who has given recitals in San Francisco, Washing-

ton and Boston, USA, interprets the screen images, live, on the Abbey organ.

Arrive early for a seat.

Café & Bar from 7pm

Admission £5, £3 (Students & Under 18s)

Tickets from the Abbey or at www.ticketsource.co.uk/malmesburyabbey

THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE

DAME//Anthony Hammond (organ) Tuesday 31st March at 7.30pm

On January 15th 1941 one of the most remarkable pieces of music of the

20th century had its first performance. It was a bitterly cold day, and this

new piece wasn’t premiered in a concert hall or in a great cathedral but

in the Stalag VIIIA prisoner-of-war camp in Görlitz, Germany. French pris-

oners of war crowded into Barack 27, with German officers sitting on the

front row. For 50 minutes the war stopped as an unlikely audience lis-

tened to a piano, a violin, a clarinet and a cello play the music of a

French prisoner, Olivier Messaien. His timeless work, the Quartet for the

End of Time, was inspired by Revelation 10.

This Maundy Thursday at 7.30pm, this extraordinary work is, we believe,

to be given it’s first performance in Malmesbury Abbey. Performed,

along with solo suites by JS Bach, by four outstanding young musicians

from London’s Royal Academy of Music: Joseph Havlat (piano), Tanya

Sweiry (violin), Jordan Black (clarinet) & Hannah Innes (cello).

THE ROYAL

ACADEMY OF MUSIC//

Quartet for the end of time Maundy Thursday at 7.30pm

Admission £5, £3 (Students & Under 18s)

Tickets from the Abbey or at

www.ticketsource.co.uk/malmesburyabbey

GOOD FRIDAY//

Allegri, Handel & Purcell Good Friday at 6.30pm

Good Friday is the day on which two billion

Christians worldwide remember the king who

wore a crown of thorns—a Messiah dying that

a broken and dark world might have hope.

At the heart of our five acts of worship this

Good Friday is a Devotional Concert from

Malmesbury Abbey Choir, at 6.30pm. Allegri’s

Miserere, Purcell’s Hear my prayer and choruses

from Handel’s Messiah Part II will be inter-

spersed with readings from St Mark’s Gospel.

This event is not ticketed, but please arrive

early to be assured of a seat.

Good Friday Services

9am Morning Prayer

10.30am Service of the Cross (for all ages)

12noon Churches Together March of Witness

6.30pm Devotional Concert (see above)

8pm Service of the Tomb (Night Prayer)

‘Alleluia! Christ is Risen! He is risen in-

deed! Alleluia!’ These words, pro-

claimed for centuries at Easter by the

global church, will resound across the

six Easter services at the Abbey. As is

the case in many Cathedrals, Easter

begins with a service on Easter Eve, at

7pm. The Abbey is again delighted to

be working in partnership with BBC

WILTSHIRE to record Easter from

Malmesbury Abbey, for broadcast on

Easter Day and Easter Monday across

the county. Tickets (£3) are now avail-

able for this event. On Easter Day you

are very welcome to all our services

but please note that our choral Holy

Communion at 10.30am and our

Family Celebration at 4pm are par-

ticularly full and you are advised to

arrive early.

EASTER EVE &

EASTER DAY Saturday April 4th & Sunday April 5th

2015 DIARY WEEK 2

Monday 30th March

9am Morning Prayer

7.30pm Simon Conway Morris

Tuesday 31st March

9am Morning Prayer

7.30pm Hunchback of Notre Dame

Wednesday 1st April

9am Morning Prayer

10.30am Holy Communion

7.30pm Glory! Prayer

10pm Malmesbury Abbey Choir: Allegri,

Handel & Purcell

Maundy Thursday

9am Holy Communion

7.30pm The Royal Academy of Music

10pm Service in the Garden

Good Friday see previous page

Easter Eve

7pm BBC Wiltshire Easter Service

(please be seated by 6.30pm)

Easter Day

6am Dawn Service & Breakfast

9am BCP Holy Communion

10.30am Holy Communion

4pm Family Easter Celebration & Easter

Egg Hunt

6.30pm Easter Choral Evensong