The worst Christmas carol ever?

St Edmunds College Chapel

On Monday we attended my daughter's school's carol concert and encountered what I think is possibly the worst Christmas carol ever. While being a strong Catholic school (no we are not catholic), it always manages a welcoming, inclusive carol concert in their old chapel. The choir features soaring descants and they get the "length" just about right at a little over an hour.

We have attended most years and once again they did it well this time. As usual they mix traditional and lifting congretational carols with choral pieces. These are largely familiar and include "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" at the end. This is a carol that was composed by a member of the college, John Francis Wade, in 1760 and first performed when the school was in exile as the English College in Douai, France. This year they had the original manuscript on display and sang the first verse in Latin. That was interesting.

Having said they did well, the order of service included "Of the Father's Heart Begotten" as a congregational hymn in the middle. I had never heard of this before and found that it rather like a dirge and difficult to sing. Of course a lack of familiarity did not help, but the problem was fundamentally deeper than that. I found the lyrics barely scanned, the music was pretty much of a drone and no descant to rescue it.

I felt it spoilt the flow and tone of the service. To me, and I am not "churchy", carols should be uplifting, inspirational and most of all enjoyable and engaging. This was not. Such a shame and, in my opinion, and unusual failure of judgement.

It reminded me of a Phil Collins concert at Wembley a few years ago. At this event Phil Collins played a very mixed bag of songs with no apparent shape or pattern. It was interspersed with continual pleas to give money to the homeless. As a paying member of the audience it felt as if he was playing to please himself, not to entertain or engage. All in all it was a big disappointment.

While I recognise that the primary reason for going to church/chapel is not to be entertained, engagement is critical and ever more important, so I will leave the reader to draw their own parallels.

My parting words are to suggest that anyone who has responsibility to put together the running order for a carol service should fight any temptation to include "Of the Father's Heart Begotten"!