Foreword

By The Very Reverend the Dean of Winchester

I am glad to have the opportunity of writing a few words of introduction to this Form of Festival Service. Those who have had experience in preparing Forms of Service for Diocesan Church Festivals and similar occasions know how difficult it is to meet the various needs which have to be supplied. The service itself, for instance, must have sufficient structure to make it a real act of worship and teaching, and not simply a programme; while the music must be such as to whet the ambition, and yet not overtax the resources, of quite simple village choirs. These are the aims of this Festival Book, and I hope and believe that it will be found to be really helpful. The structure of the service obviously owes much to the Festival of Nine Carols and Lessons which King's College, Cambridge, gives us each Christmas-time; and it is adapted here to embrace all the seasons of the Church's year, so that the choirs which take part may feel that they are bringing to the Festival an offering in which the work of each season is represented. Our great Cathedrals call for the voice of prayer and praise to be uplifted within their walls from every corner of the diocese they serve; and echoes should come answering back from many a parish church, where a group of choirs gather for Festivals of more local range in towns or rural deaneries.

The Form here submitted is obviously capable of plentiful variation in detail; and, should it commend itself in principle, the Winchester Diocesan Choral Association would hope to prepare further series on similar lines.

E.G. Selwyn.

The Deanery,
    Winchester.
        February 1934.