Webcasts

The recording of services began in the autumn of 2015, when a new sound system was installed in the cathedral. These were made available on an occasional basis via the choir’s Soundcloud page. With the advent of this website, our aim is to make a different service available each week and, in this way, we seek to allow those unable to be with us in person to participate in the worship that is central to the life of Hereford Cathedral.

It is important to note that in these recordings, the listener hears exactly what they would have heard had they been present at the service itself. No extra rehearsal is undertaken beforehand, and no editing takes place afterwards.

An order for Choral Evensong can be downloaded here.

Sermons

A number of the sermons preached at the cathedral are available to listen to and to read here.

Archive

An archive of webcast services is available here.

To see all our previous webcasts, please visit our Soundcloud page.

We hope that you enjoy these ‘snapshots’ of the daily services at Hereford Cathedral.

If you would like to be notified each time a new webcast is made available, please fill in this form.

Evensong podcast, Thursday 2 April 2020

This podcast includes Kenneth Leighton’s beautiful setting of words by Phineas Fletcher and Johann Sebastian Bach's great chorale prelude Aus tiefer Not schrei’ ich zu dir.

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The texts of the psalms can be found here (opens in a new tab or window).

Old Testament Lesson: Jeremiah 23: 9–32

 Concerning the prophets: My heart is crushed within me, all my bones shake; I have become like a drunkard, like one overcome by wine, because of the Lord and because of his holy words. For the land is full of adulterers; because of the curse the land mourns, and the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. Their course has been evil, and their might is not right. Both prophet and priest are ungodly; even in my house I have found their wickedness, says the Lord. Therefore their way shall be to them like slippery paths in the darkness, into which they shall be driven and fall; for I will bring disaster upon them in the year of their punishment, says the Lord. In the prophets of Samaria I saw a disgusting thing: they prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray. But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a more shocking thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from wickedness; all of them have become like Sodom to me, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah. Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets: ‘I am going to make them eat wormwood, and give them poisoned water to drink; for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has spread throughout the land.’ Thus says the Lord of hosts: Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you; they are deluding you. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. They keep saying to those who despise the word of the Lord, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to all who stubbornly follow their own stubborn hearts, they say, ‘No calamity shall come upon you.’ For who has stood in the council of the Lord so as to see and to hear his word? Who has given heed to his word so as to proclaim it? Look, the storm of the Lord! Wrath has gone forth, a whirling tempest; it will burst upon the head of the wicked. The anger of the Lord will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the intents of his mind. In the latter days you will understand it clearly. I did not send the prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in my council, then they would have proclaimed my words to my people, and they would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings. Am I a God near by, says the Lord, and not a God far off? Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them? says the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the Lord. I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ How long? Will the hearts of the prophets ever turn back—those who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart? They plan to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, just as their ancestors forgot my name for Baal. Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? says the Lord. Is not my word like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces? See, therefore, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who steal my words from one another. See, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who use their own tongues and say, ‘Says the Lord.’ See, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, says the Lord, and who tell them, and who lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when I did not send them or appoint them; so they do not profit this people at all, says the Lord.

New Testament Lesson: John 12: 12–19

The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord – the King of Israel!’ Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written: ‘Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!’ His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him. So the crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to testify. It was also because they heard that he had performed this sign that the crowd went to meet him. The Pharisees then said to one another, ‘You see, you can do nothing. Look, the world has gone after him!’

Anthem text

Drop, drop, slow tears,
 And bathe those beauteous feet,
Which brought from heaven
 The news and Prince of peace.

Cease not, wet eyes,
 His mercies to entreat;
To cry for vengeance
 Sin doth never cease.

In your deep floods
 Drown all my faults and fears;
Nor let his eye
 See sin, but through my tears.

Phineas Fletcher 1582–1650