St. Giles Cathedral

St. Giles Cathedral, or perhaps more appropriately the High Kirk of Edinburgh, is the mother church of Presbyterianism and our place for Sunday worship.  We attended the main service at 10:00am with choir, organ, and communion.  It was lovely hearing the minister's Scottish brogue while he preached.

Interestingly enough, the first hymn was the Battle Hymn of the Republic, which is apparently not even in the Presbyterian hymnal, so we felt right at home.  As it happens, the minister was at the Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago for a number of years before coming to St. Giles and a choir from Fourth Presbyterian was giving a concert that night as part of a tour of Scotland.  He wanted to recognize our American Independence Day knowing that so many Americans would be in attendance this morning.

The organist and choir were excellent and filled the cathedral with a glorious sound.  We took an extra long pause between each hymn verse due to the reverberation.  A bonus for me was the anthem was the Gloria in Excelsis from the Ralph Vaughn Williams Mass in G minor which I sang in college.  Communion was a new experience as we formed a circle in the middle of the church and passed the elements to one another around the circle, tearing a piece of bread and drinking wine from a very large chalice.  The choir sang while we were taking communion which greatly added to the experience.

David and I returned to hear the evening concert and heard more glorious music from the Chicago choir.  A great day, richly filled with word and music to get our trip off to a fabulous start.