Compline at St. David's Episcopal Church, Austin, Texas

Compline at St. David's Episcopal Church, Austin, Texas Compline is a short, meditative service sung a cappella by a choir as the congregation listens and prays silently in the darkened church.

Gregorian and Sarum chant melodies interspersed with English and Latin polyphony form the core of the service music. "All you have to do is sit back and listen as the accomplished St. David's singers bring to life the ancient sung-and-chanted Compline service. The church is dark (and cool!), the incense sweet, the voices sweeter, and if a thunderstorm happens to pass overhead, all the better." (Th

e Austin Chronicle)

Compline is the last of the daily offices chanted by monks before retiring for the evening. This venerable service is offered every Sunday evening at 9 p.m. by the Compline Choir under the direction of Music Director David Stevens. Initiated in 1986 by former music director Les Martin, Compline is a short, meditative service chanted by a choir of anywhere between eight to eighteen experienced singers. Several of these singers have been with the choir since its inception. The music consists of Gregorian and Sarum chant melodies, Elizabethan and Tudor motets, and a variety of contemporary hymns. The congregation sits quietly in the candlelit and incensed Historic Church, participating through silent prayer and meditation. The service lasts approximately a half-hour. All are welcome to attend regardless of your religious affiliation. Dress is “come-as-you-are” casual. (http://stdave.org/site/music/cat/compline_choir/)

08/01/2022

COMPLINE AT ST. DAVID’S ENDS THIS SUNDAY, AUGUST 7.

We’re very sorry to have to announce the fact in this way, but it’s true.
(There was to have been an announcement from the parish’s comms people, but it wasn’t made here.)

There are many reasons: We’re in one sense a casualty of COVID-19, and the disruption it has wrought on gatherings in enclosed spaces, especially “in Quires and Places where they Sing.” Our Sunday attendance has withered, in choir as well as congregation; what might have once been an impulse to join us has become a conscious and fraught decision, and we understand. The parish, frankly, can no longer afford to keep the facilities open for us to sing to each other, however much we might desire to continue doing so.

Our beloved music director, Dr David Stevens, is also retiring this Sunday, August 7th (9th Sunday after Pentecost/day after the Feast of the Transfiguration), so it has seemed prudent to end things now, cleanly.

We will miss you all. We will miss each other. We’re sorry we won’t be there for new people to find – whether singers or seekers of contemplative worship. The need, we are certain, remains. Compline may yet be re-born, should the need and capacity for it coïncide again.

Work and pray.

04/18/2022

This video may have cut short. It was for Easter Sunday 2022.

04/17/2022
Compline tonight can be viewed online at
11/29/2021

Compline tonight can be viewed online at

Sunday 8 a.m. | Historic Church, Holy Eucharist, Rite II (without music)Sunday 9 a.m. | Historic Church, Holy Eucharist, Rite IISunday 9 a.m. | Outdoor Labyrinth, Holy Eucharist, Enriching Our WorshipSunday 11:15 a.m. | Historic Church, Holy Eucharist, Rite II (livestreamed on Facebook, YouTub...

02/14/2021

Owing to the winter storm, there will be no Compline live stream this evening. Here is Compline from the Last Sunday after the Epiphany/Quinquagesima last year, which was February 23, 2020 (pre-COVID restrictions).

Address

301 E 8th Street
Austin, TX
78701

Opening Hours

8pm - 8:30pm

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