Children straggle into Rochester Cathedral near London, England. And then they transform. 

Off go jackets and backpacks. 

On go burgundy cassocks (robes). 

On go white surplices (tunics with wide sleeves). 

The kids open their mouths to sing. They become a choir. And they also become a part of Evensong. That’s a tradition of choral music in the Church of England. It has hardly changed in almost 500 years. And it keeps going . . . because of kids.

“It’s one of the sounds of our country,” says Adrian Bawtree. He directs the choir. “All of our cathedrals are beautiful, sacred spaces,” he says. There, he continues, “You can be immersed, bathed, nourished, sent out back into the world transformed by an experience in 30 minutes.”

Choral Evensong is an evening service of hymns, psalms, and prayers. It was first laid out by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer in 1549. He was the first Protestant leader of the Church of England. The choir performs the service. The congregation participates simply by listening.

But in recent years, fewer people attend church. Money for running the choir gets tight. Fewer kids show up to sing. Will Evensong be able to continue?

Lovers of Evensong try to get the service classified as an important part of British culture. Such recognition would bring money along with it. 

Mr. Bawtree was just nine when he started to love Evensong. He heard an organ play and a choir sing. “When I heard it,” he says, “it was like big octopus arms came and grabbed me and said, ‘You’ve got to be part of this.’”

Why? In palaces or in poverty, songs sung to God are beautiful.

Recommended Reading: For more about the Church of England, read Thomas Cranmer: The King's Ambassador by David Luckman.