The preparation and penitence of Lent comes to a climax in the events of Holy Week and Easter. All are welcome to join us for the first of our special Holy Week services on Palm Sunday, 13th April, and we begin in celebratory mood.

Music at the service is performed by our professional St Bride's Choir and Organist.

Setting: Communion Service in B minor – Thomas Tertius Noble
Canticle: Benedictus in D major – George Dyson
Sermon: The Revd Canon Dr Alison Joyce, Rector of St Bride’s
Anthem: Hosanna to the Son of David – Thomas Weelkes

The crowds hail Jesus as their Messiah, laying palms before him as he enters Jerusalem as they cry, “Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”

Yet Christ enters his own city in order to complete his work as our Saviour through his suffering, death and resurrection.

During our first hymn the congregation leave the church and process around it singing, blessed palm crosses held aloft as symbols of Jesus’ coming victory and in re-enactment of that triumphant day:

‘All glory, laud, and honour
to thee, Redeemer, King,
to whom the lips of children
made sweet hosannas ring.’

This service will also stream online on this page at the same time as the service in church, and on our pages at Facebook, YouTube and SoundCloud.

SUPPORT ST BRIDE'S
There will be a collection during the service to support the work, ministry and music-making of St Bride's and help maintain our magnificent Wren church.

St Bride's is wholly reliant on and deeply grateful for the generous support of our visitors and congregation.

Donations can be made by cash or contactless at church or via JustGiving. Do please Gift Aid your donation if you are eligible which generates an extra 25p in every £1 donated.

After the triumphant scenes of Palm Sunday as Jesus entered Jerusalem, the atmosphere of Holy Week changes as we share something of the quiet companionship of Maundy Thursday at our evening Choral Eucharist at 6pm on Thursday 17th April sung by St Bride’s Choir.

Maundy Thursday gets its name from the Latin word mandare meaning to command. We remember Jesus’ command: “Love one another as I have loved you.”

All are welcome to this moving service which is full of symbolism and sets the scene for the events to come on Good Friday.

MUSIC
The following music will be performed at the service by our professional St Bride’s Choir and Organist.

Communion Setting: Missa Laetatus sum – Tomás Luis de Victoria
Anthem: O sacrum convivium – Olivier Messiaen

The night before his crucifixion, Jesus shared a final meal with his friends, before his betrayal and his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane.

“And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.” – Luke 22: 19-20

At the end of our service the Sacrament is processed to the Altar of Repose. The Sanctuary is then stripped of all adornment whilst Psalm 22 is read aloud by the congregation.

This ancient Maundy Thursday custom symbolises the humiliation of Jesus at the hands of the soldiers as he was stripped for crucifixion: “They part my garments among them : and cast lots upon my vesture.”

The congregation leaves the bare church in silence.

SUPPORT ST BRIDE'S
There will be a collection during the service to support the work, ministry and music-making of St Bride's and help maintain our magnificent Wren church.

St Bride's is wholly reliant on and deeply grateful for the generous support of our visitors and congregation.

Donations can be made by cash or contactless at church or via JustGiving. Do please Gift Aid your donation if you are eligible which generates an extra 25p in every £1 donated.

The companionship and servitude of the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday give way to the utter bleakness and desolation of Good Friday.

We mark this in music, words and prayer at St Bride’s in our Three Hours’ Devotion which begins with a performance of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater at 12 noon on Good Friday, 18th April, 2025.

The devotion continues at 1pm with an hour of words and music entitled At the foot of the Cross and concludes at 2pm with God so loved the world – an hour of choral music and poetry for Passiontide.

You are warmly invited to attend all or any part of the three hours.

We are delighted that the performance by singers Claire Seaton and Charlie Morris from St Bride’s Choir will be accompanied by string players from the St Bride’s Orchestra together with organ continuo.

This is the best-known setting of the 13th century poem based upon the prophecy of Simeon that a sword shall pierce the heart of Christ’s mother Mary (Luke 2: 35) and compassionately describes the sorrowing Mary as she keeps station at the foot of the cross.

The poet, debatably Jacapone da Todi, a thirteenth century Franciscan monk, prays to Mary to let him share her grief and to let him suffer with Jesus and for her intercession. In the last stanza the poet prays directly to God for a place in paradise.

Pergolesi’s setting was written in about 1735 and was first printed in London in 1749. It became the most frequently published single work of the 18th century.

Pergolesi (1710-1736) composed it at the end of his life which was spent at a Franciscan monastery in Pozzuoli and it was written as a replacement for the Allesandro Scarlatti setting in use at the church of Maria dei Sette Dolori in Naples.

SUPPORT ST BRIDE'S
There will be a collection at the performance to support the work, ministry and music-making of St Bride's and help maintain our magnificent Wren church.

St Bride's is wholly reliant on and deeply grateful for the generous support of our visitors and congregation.

Donations can be made by cash or contactless at church or via JustGiving. Do please Gift Aid your donation if you are eligible which generates an extra 25p in every £1 donated.

We gather on this most solemn of days to retell in words and music the story of the last hours of Christ’s life and his death on the Cross.

The central section of our Three Hour Good Friday observance this year is a reflection on the Passion narrative in St Luke’s Gospel. It focuses on the themes of isolation, humiliation and innocence.

Each section of this Gospel account is explored through reflection, prayer, and silence, alongside some wonderful Passiontide hymns and instrumental music.

The Three Hour Devotion begins at 12pm with a performance of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater. It concludes with God so loved the world – an hour of choral music and poetry for Passiontide at 2pm.

You are warmly invited to attend all or any part of the three hours.

SUPPORT ST BRIDE'S
There will be a collection at the event to support the work, ministry and music-making of St Bride's and help maintain our magnificent Wren church.

St Bride's is wholly reliant on and deeply grateful for the generous support of our visitors and congregation.

Donations can be made by cash or contactless at church or via JustGiving. Do please Gift Aid your donation if you are eligible which generates an extra 25p in every £1 donated.

Good Friday is the most bleak and dark day of Holy Week. We mark this in music, words and prayer at St Bride’s in our Three Hours’ Devotion which concludes at 2pm with an hour of poetry and choral music for Passiontide entitled God so loved the world sung by St Bride’s Choir.

The Three Hour Devotion begins at 12pm with a performance of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater. This is followed at 1pm by an hour of words and music entitled At the foot of the Cross which focuses on St Luke’s telling of the Passion.

You are warmly invited to attend all or any part of the three hours.

MUSIC
Music will be sung by our professional St Bride's Choir and include Versa est in luctum by Alonso Lobo, O vos omnes by Pablo Casals and Christus factus est by Anton Bruckner, as well as God so loved the world and two of the traditional hymns from Stainer’s The Crucifixion.

SUPPORT ST BRIDE'S
There will be a collection at the event to support the work, ministry and music-making of St Bride's and help maintain our magnificent Wren church.

St Bride's is wholly reliant on and deeply grateful for the generous support of our visitors and congregation.

Donations can be made by cash or contactless at church or via JustGiving. Do please Gift Aid your donation if you are eligible which generates an extra 25p in every £1 donated.

Our Dawn Service is one of the most evocative events in our yearly calendar enjoyed both by our congregation and visiting tourists.

It marks the beginning of a day of celebration of the feast of Easter. It starts with an echo of the darkness and despair of Good Friday but quickly moves to an affirmation of the strength of God’s love.

The service is immediately followed by traditional egg-rolling in Fleet Street after which a well-deserved breakfast is served back in church.

The service begins at 6:00am in darkness as we sit in vigil and hear the record of how God saved his people in ages past.

The congregation then moves to the West Door and a new flame is kindled from which the Easter Candle is lit. This new light of Christ is shared amongst the congregation.

We return to the nave to hear a lone voice sing the Exsultet, the great Easter song of praise. Light returns to the church, we reaffirm our faith and the first communion of Easter is celebrated.

MUSIC
The following music will be performed at the service by St Bride’s Choir and Organist.

Setting: Communion Service in F – Harold Darke
Anthem: This joyful Eastertide – Charles Wood

The Verger then leads us in procession out on to Fleet Street for egg-rolling which symbolises both new life and the rolling of the stone from Christ’s tomb. A suitably chocolate-y prize is awarded for the furthest rolled egg.

Don’t forget to bring your hard-boiled (decorated) eggs!

All are welcome to join us as we convene at our 11am Easter Sunday Service to celebrate the great miracle of Easter in readings, music and hymns and in joyful communion.

However deep the darkness and despair of Good Friday, in the end God’s love was far greater. There is new life. There is new hope, for Christ is risen from the dead.

Refreshments will be served after the service and there will be an Egg Hunt in the Rectory Garden and other Easter activities for the under 10s.

Music
During the service St Bride’s Choir and Organist will perform some suitably jubilant music to celebrate this great feast day:

Setting: Missa brevis – Zoltán Kodály
Canticle: Easter Hymn from Cavalleria rusticana – Pietro Mascagni
Sermon: The Revd Canon Dr Alison Joyce, Rector of St Bride’s
Anthems: Haec dies – John Sheppard
Organ Voluntary: Paraphrase on Judas Maccabaeus – Alexandre Guilmant

SUPPORT ST BRIDE'S
There will be a collection during the service to support the work, ministry and music-making of St Bride's and help maintain our magnificent Wren church.

St Bride's is wholly reliant on and deeply grateful for the generous support of our visitors and congregation.

Donations can be made by cash or contactless at church or via JustGiving. Do please Gift Aid your donation if you are eligible which generates an extra 25p in every £1 donated.