Westminster Abbey Choir to Sing at St Peter’s in Rome
June 25, 2012: Westminster Abbey’s world-famous choir arrives in Italy this week
(Tuesday 26th June) for a tour of Rome and Montecassino which will include
singing for Pope Benedict XVI, with the Sistine Chapel Choir, at the Papal Mass marking
the Solemnity of St Peter and St Paul on Friday 29th June in St Peter’s Basilica.
The service will be broadcast live across the world and will be the first time in
its 500-year history that the Sistine Chapel Choir has sung with another choir.The Dean of Westminster, The Very Reverend Dr John Hall said: “This visit, a fruit of the Pope's visit to Westminster Abbey in 2010, will both celebrate the riches of the liturgical tradition we hold in common and also, we pray, be a powerful symbol to the wider world of movement on the long ecumenical journey towards full visible unity.”
The Abbey Choir was invited to Rome by Pope Benedict XVI, following his visit to the UK in September 2010, during which he attended an ecumenical service of Evening Prayer at Westminster Abbey.
Whilst in Rome, the Abbey Choir will also perform a Concert of Sacred Choral Music in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore on Tuesday 26th June, and a Festal Evensong in Santa Maria Sopra Minerva on Friday 29th June.
The Choir then travels to the Benedictine Monastery at Monte Cassino to sing Vespers on Saturday 30th June and Mass on Sunday 1st July with the monastic community at the burial place of St Benedict.
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