I recently went to hear the Farrant Singers from Salisbury sing evensong at Wells Cathedral. The choir contained a friend of mine (as well as another singer who is ubiquitous in choirs around here!).
It was a good service, with Howells in B minor (which seems to be turning up all over the place these days) and a setting of verses from Psalm 51 by Brahms. The verses set were read out in English at the beginning of the prayers which followed.
Other Cathedrals aren’t always so careful about anthems which aren’t in English. I was singing a few years ago at a major Cathedral in the eastern counties, and the anthem was introduced in the following words: ‘The anthem is Rheinberger’s Abendlied‘. That was it: no translation of the words, or even of Abendlied! Not everyone knows German.
There is a widespread tendency (not confined to clergy or musicians) to detach the words of the anthem from the rest of the liturgy, so it doesn’t matter if the congregation has no idea what they are. Some people complained that Princess Diana’s funeral contained no reference to the resurrection, despite the fact that the first words heard were ‘I am the resurrection and the life’. Did the fact that they’d been set to music by Purcell mean that they somehow didn’t count?