Church services on Sunday will not be ‘low’ in tone

I always thought this was most appropriate at it was usually the Sunday when the minister took a rest after the busy time of the Easter services and it was always, in St George’s, when the organist took his Sunday off, so the ‘B’ team was in evidence doing the service.

If it was me, this was when the battery in the microphone went flat too!

However, it is probably ‘Low’ Sunday after the ‘Highs’ of the previous one, Easter Day.

It was also, in the early church, the day when newly baptised people took off their special white robes which they had been wearing since the service on Easter Day.

Topically enough, it is also called ‘Quasimodo Sunday’ as the first two words of the opening Antiphon at Mass, Quasi modo geniti infantes (As newborn babes).

This was the day when the baby in Victor Hugo’s ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ was found in the cathedral, so he was called after the words of the mass.

It’s also ‘low’ as the reading is usually the story of Thomas who had to see Jesus for himself before he believed. Not a good start.

However, I’m sure none of the services on Sunday will be ‘low’ in tone at all.

I mentioned last week how lovely it was to hear the church bells and on Easter Sunday I heard them as I went to church and then again as I came out. Lovely!

It’s almost May and, as there are two bank holidays, there will be concerts and spring fairs again.

And it is also a good opportunity to buy your plants for the summer.

St Hilda’s has its usual Bank Holiday Organ Lunchtime Concerts at the beginning and the end of May on the two Bank Holiday Mondays.

The first is on Monday, May 6, with Christopher Haresnape, and the second is on May 27 with Daniel Cook.

Tickets are on sale and include the price of lunch so make sure they know you are going so there will be a place laid for you!

Tickets are £6 and the concerts start at 12.30pm.

On Saturday,May 11, St George’s holds its Spring Fair where you can stock up your garden with plants, many of them providing good eating. There will be other stalls too.

In the evening you can go along to St Hilda’s for a special concert by Hartlepool Male Voice Choir in aid of the Brigades’ Camp Appeal.

This will be at 7pm. Refreshments will also be available and there will be a raffle. Cost of a ticket? £5.