If you have a smartphone, the full order of service and music details are available by scanning the QR code. The church is served by a hearing loop. Users should turn their hearing aid to the setting marked T.

Photography, filming, and sound recording are not allowed in St Margaret's Church during services. Please ensure that mobile telephones and other electronic devices are silent.

The service is sung by the St Margaret's Choristers.

Setting: Stabat mater dolorosa, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710–36)

Following the service a collection will be taken; the money from today's services will be divided equally between St John's Hospice and the work of the Abbey. St John's Hospice is committed to celebrating and amplifying life, enabling people to live well for as long as possible.

Order of Service

All stand as the choir and clergy enter in silence

The officiant says the Introduction and Prayer

All sit. The choir sings

Stabat mater dolorosa
Iuxta crucem lacrimosa,
Dum pendebat filius

Cuius animam gementem,
Contristatam ac dolentem,
Pertransivit gladius.

A sorrowing mother stood weeping beside the cross while her son hung there,

Her grieving heart, so full of tears and anguish, pierced as though with a sword.

All remain seated for the Reading Psalm 22: 1–11

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
   Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;
   and by night, but find no rest.
Yet you are holy,
   enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In you our ancestors trusted;
   they trusted, and you delivered them.
To you they cried, and were saved;
   in you they trusted, and were not put to shame.
But I am a worm, and not human;
   scorned by others, and despised by the people.
All who see me mock at me;
   they make mouths at me, they shake their heads;
'Commit your cause to the Lord; let him deliver—
   let him rescue the one in whom he delights!'
Yet it was you who took me from the womb;
   you kept me safe on my mother's breast.
On you I was cast from my birth,
   and since my mother bore me you have been my God.
Do not be far from me,
   for trouble is near
   and there is no one to help.

The choir sings

O quam tristis et afflicta
Fuit illa benedicta
Mater unigeniti.

Quae moerebat et dolebat
Et tremebat cum videbat
Nati poenas incliti.

Oh, how sad and unfortunate was that blessed mother of an only son.

How she mourned and grieved and trembled as she watched the sufferings of her glorious son.

The Reading, 'Good Friday' Christina Rossetti (1830–94)

Am I a stone, and not a sheep,
That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy cross,
To number drop by drop Thy blood's slow loss,
And yet not weep?

Not so those women loved
Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;
Not so fallen Peter, weeping bitterly;
Not so the thief was moved;

Not so the Sun and Moon
Which hid their faces in a starless sky,
A horror of great darkness at broad noon –
I, only I.

Yet give not o'er,
But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;
Greater than Moses, turn and look once more
And smite a rock.

The choir sings

Quis est homo qui non fleret
Christi matrem si videret
In tanto supplicio?

Quis non posset contristari,
Piam matrem contemplari
Dolentem cum filio?

Pro peccatis suae gentis
Vidit Jesum in tormentis
Et flagellis subditum.

Vidit suum dulcem natum
Morientem desolatum,
Dum emisit spiritum.

What man would not weep seeing the mother of Christ in such distress?

Who could not feel compassion at the sight of the holy mother grieving beside her son?

For the sins of his people she saw Jesus tormented and subjected to scourging.

She watched her dear son dying forsaken as he yielded up his spirit.

The Reading, John 19: 25b–30

Standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, 'Woman, here is your son.' Then he said to the disciple, 'Here is your mother.' And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfil the scripture), 'I am thirsty.' A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the wine, he said, 'It is finished.' Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

The choir sings

Eia mater, fons amoris,
Me sentire vim doloris
Fac, ut tecum lugeam.

Fac, ut ardeat cor meum
In amando Christum Deum,
Ut sibi complaceam.

O mother, fount of love, share the depth of suffering with me, so that I may mourn with thee.

Kindle such love for Christ my God within my heart that I may be worthy of him.

The Reading, 'Dead and Buried' Elizabeth Rooney (1924–99)

And so we took him down
(Or thought we did),
Wiped off the sweat and spittle
From his face,
Washed the dried blood,
Threw out the crown of thorns,
And wrapped him once again
In swaddling clothes.

A tomb can be a cramped,
Confining place,
Far smaller than a stable.
We laid him there
(Or thought we did).
We were not able
To comprehend
The infinite contained.
For us it was the end.
Only the harsh realities
Of death and stone
Remained.

The choir sings

Inflammatus et accensus
Per te, Virgo, sim defensus,
In die iudicii.

Fac me cruce custodiri,
Morte Christi praemuniri
Confoveri gratia.

Quando corpus morietur,
Fac, ut animae donetur
Paradisi Gloria.
   Amen.

Though I burn and am aflame, may I be defended by thee, Virgin, at the day of judgement.

Let me be protected by the cross, strengthened by the death of Christ, thankful in his love.

When my body dies let my soul be granted the glory of Paradise. Amen.

Silence is kept

The officiant says the Prayer

The organist plays

O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde groß BWV 622, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)

during which the choir and clergy depart

The congregation departs in silence

Scripture Reading is from the New Revised Standard Version.