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When the office ‘phone rang last Thursday, little were
we expecting to hold a service for over five hundred
people with just over a week’s notice! It had become
apparent to the Diocese that the church who were due to
host the Collation of the new Archdeacon of Northampton,
was simply not big enough to hold the invited
congregation. All Saints had room for everyone, and
space to invite anyone to come, something which was
impossible at the original church.
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Our
Parish Priest, Fr David McConkey, welcomed the
nominated Archdeacon and senior staff from the
Diocese over the coming days, and all was put in
place. For the people of All Saints the service
was something of a novelty – from the singing of
a worship song and A. H. Malotte’s setting of
the Lord’s Prayer by a soloist
accompanied by piano, and the modern language of
the service itself. We were able to muster about
two-thirds of our choir of 24 boys and 16 men,
who led the singing of hymns, and the Director
of Music contributed Bach’s ‘Great’
Prelude and Fugue in C minor, |
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BWV
546, and the Prelude and ‘St Anne’ Fugue in
Eb, BWV 552 before the service, and
concluded the service with the Toccata
from Pierre Cochereau’s Symphonie de Boston
(originally improvised by Cochereau in 1956).
The combination of tradition and innovation was
itself a great celebration of the breadth of
parishes who will be served by the newly
collated Archdeacon, the Ven. Richard Ormston. |
The Parish
Priest, Churchwardens and people of All Saints were
delighted to be able to host the service and greatly
looking forward to working with Archdeacon Richard over
the weeks, months and years to come.
The order of service for Collation can be downloaded
here. |
