The Chapel Choir will host its first Evensong service of the academic year in Christ Chapel on September 8th at 6 p.m.

This Sunday’s Evensong will consist of a simpler version of the service with the congregation leading the hymns. 

The Chapel Choir rehearses multiple times per week to prepare for the 45-minute Evensong service, led by Timothy McDonnell, associate professor of music and director of sacred music.

McDonnell has led the Chapel Choir and Choral Scholars Program since 2021. This year, there are 39 members in the Chapel Choir, 29 of whom are part of the Choral Scholars program.  

“Evensong is an opportunity for people from the college and the community to pray, reflect, and worship God together,” McDonnell said in a press release. 

Originating from Oxford and Cambridge, the service is rooted in the tradition of the daily office prayers and liturgy of the hours. 

It combines elements primarily from Roman Catholicism and Anglicanism. Hillsdale College Chaplain Reverend Adam Rick serves as the officiating member of Evensong. His duties include assisting McDonnell, working with other students to execute the service, and helping with the call and response prayers, he said. 

Rick said he finds the beauty of Evensong in its simplicity and the beautifully sung liturgy. 

“It’s just a prayer service with scriptural lessons,” Rick said. “So, it makes it very accessible to our ecumenical context here at Hillsdale College.” 

The sacred music which is sung at Evensong is both meditative and worshipful, Rick said.

The service includes psalms, a lesson from the Old and New Testaments, intercessions with the Lord’s Prayer, and chant.

“It’s like an angelic chorus kind of thing,” Rick said, “like entering in with angels, who are forever singing God’s praises.”

Senior Madeleine Scheve, a choral scholar, said she finds Evensong a great way to end her Sunday.

 “Each denomination can find something unique to them in the service,” Scheve said. “Everyone goes to their own church, but it is nice to have something that unifies us, especially on campus.”

Junior choral scholar Maria Schmid said she appreciates the liturgy of the hours from which Evensong originates. Schmid said one of her favorite parts is Nunc Dimittis, meaning the Song of Simeon, which is a prayer for God’s protection and peace sung at every service. 

“It’s like this preparation for bed,” Schmid said. “Closing the week with the Lord, beginning it again with him.”