Celebrating creativity, which builds on the past, engages with the present and shapes the future
I do sometimes wonder in my more whimsical moments if Archbishop Thomas Cranmer could possibly have foreseen the sea of creativity he was opening up when he launched his Book of Common Prayer on the world? I doubt it very much indeed.
I do hope, therefore, that he’s been granted a vantage point from which to witness how his liturgical legacy has, over the centuries, lived on in places of worship, from the grandest of cathedrals to the humblest of parish churches, giving people glimpses of God in the process.
I also hope that he’s found it possible to brush modesty aside and marvel at the way in which those who set forth musical tunes have enlarged the dimension of his prayerful prose by setting much of it to music, in that same spirit of Cranmerian creativity.
Surely, then, the great Archbishop must have sat down and wept when, in March of 2020, fate pressed the pause button on this daily pattern of prayerful song, as churches, chapels and cathedrals up and down the land were ordered to close, in an attempt to stem the flow of the Covid crisis.
I imagine that his heart must have gone out to those many people whose lives and livelihoods are devoted to and depend upon the offering up of liturgical music, when they suddenly could no longer do so.
The Rodolfus Foundation felt this deprivation as keenly as any. And as a community of people whose lives have been inspired and changed by choral singing, choral music and great choral directors and whose passion is to share that experience with as many young people as possible, the Foundation could very well have hung up its harp on the nearest tree and pressed the pause button too.
I wonder if it’s because the Foundation has always been deeply immersed in that sea of Cranmerian creativity that it did precisely the opposite? I wonder if it’s because Creativity is one of the Foundation’s core values that it well and truly gave fate the slip and kept on singing the Lord’s song, albeit in a strange land?
Who knows? But the Foundation has clearly asked itself the question ‘How do we keep the music playing’ and, equally clearly, has come up with a truly creative answer. Instead of sitting back and twiddling its musical thumbs, waiting for the day when its internationally renowned array of residential choral courses – also halted by Covid - could start up again, the Foundation has gone ‘virtual’.
Look at the ‘Online Education’ section of the Foundation’s website and you’ll see what I mean. Virtual Evensong. Virtual Performances. At Home with Ralph. Practice Like a Pro. Masterclasses and Ideas. As they say these days, check them out. And if that’s not an example of Cranmerian creativity, then I don’t know what is.
The Foundation calls itself to be creative – building on the past, engaging with the present and shaping the future. In my more whimsical moments, I’m sure that Archbishop Cranmer would agree with me that the Rodolfus Foundation has well and truly answered that call.
Fr Niall Weir, Trustee of the Rodolfus Foundation
December 2020