a service for PSOs

PSO in this context stands for ‘Parish Safeguarding Officer’, a job I’ve been doing at my church for four years. This year Bath & Wells, for the first time, organised social events specifically for us (some other Dioceses have been doing this for years) and a garden party at the Bishop’s Palace was preceded by Evensong in the Cathedral, which was for the feast day of St John the Baptist.

I hadn’t heard the Cathedral choir for some years and they sounded in good form. The music was all by Naylor: his canticles in A and Vox dicentis, which sounds more preposterous every time I hear or sing it.

The main organ was not used (at the end of the service an accomplished pupil at the Cathedral School played some Mozart on the piano). I’m not sure whether this was just to give the organist an evening off or because the organ is on the verge of collapse. [update October 2025: its state is now so parlous that an urgent refurbishment is going to start in January 2026]