Mass goers urged to join hymn singers
Members of the Enniscorthy Gospel Choir who regularly sing at St. Aidan's Cathedral.
SINGING IN church is not just for members of choirs. That is the message being promoted among the congregation at St. Aidan's cathedral in Enniscorthy. Worshippers are being encouraged to join in the hymns during Mass to set the rafters ringing in Pugin's splendid old church.
The cathedral has no less than four choirs who lend their voices to services – the folk group under Colm Ó Tiarnaigh), the gospel choir (Karen ní Bhroin), the children's choir (Anne Marie Quinn) and the cathedral choir (Lorna Mahon). They all want to hear more of a response from the pews, taking a leaf out of the Protestant tradition.
'It's an old Catholic thing,' muses Colm Ó Tiarnaigh. 'We feel we are not as good as our Church of Ireland friends when it comes to singing at will.' In order to break down the sound of silence, Mass goers are being actively encouraged to turn up the volume during the hymns at the beginning and end of services.
'They are not booming it out yet but I have seen an improvement as regards people signing out,' reports the man in charge of the folk group. 'How Great Thou Art' is one number that everyone seems happy to assist with but there are plenty of other religious songs worth singing.
More than three hundred hymn books have been acquired, so that no-one can claim they do not have the words. The books – 'Hymns Old and New' - were acquired with the help of donations gathered during the visit by the relics of Saint Therese of Lisieux to the cathedral.
It is hoped that by the time the Redemptorist missioners arrive in St. Aidan's next month, they will find the congregation ready to sing their hearts out and Colm is keen that this will not be the end of it.
'When the mission comes, everyone sings and then no-one sings for the next twenty years,' he jokes. Maybe this time, the happy chorus will become a regular feature of worship in St. Aidan's.
