What we're about here at St Paul's, musically and liturgically, differs somewhat from what might be called the traditional "English model" of cathedral. While we do maintain both cathedral standards and ethos, we are also very aware of our parish community and also our ministry to the wider diocesan family.
We are very much focussed on maintaining and developing what we refer to as an "authentic Canadian cathedral tradition" which attempts to blend those three elements - cathedral, parish, diocese - together into a cohesive whole. While this is focussed on the needs of our particular situation in the Diocese of Huron, it does provide a handy springboard for a wider discussion of the role(s) of a cathedral and its music department, in 21st century Canada.
The resulting philiosophy and its working out in practice makes us look somewhat different from most other cathedrals in Canada, in that we have a very high level of congregational ownership of, and participatiion in, the liturgy, which regularly includes singing, in harmony, without accompaniment.
We will share the cathedral choir's mission statement in a subsequent posting and you'll be able to see how this mission and ministry is addressed by them - we are extremely fortunate to have such a committed group of professional, semi-professional and student musicians, who put in the regular "Choir Night in Canada" time every week through the year, in addition to all our other activities.
