Services & Events

For details, see
http://www.stgeorgeintheeast.org

OTHER USERS AND CONCERTS

For several years now the British Orthodox Church (a Coptic congregation, worshipping in English) has celebrated a monthly liturgy on Saturday mornings, with a monthly midweek prayer and study group.

On Saturdays, the Soytten Sen School of Performing Arts rehearses in church, and performs regularly around Tower Hamlets as well as in church. They are committed to passing on the rich traditions of Bengali folksong, dance and drama to the rising generation - for instance, in 2011 celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) - and we are glad to be associated with them.

CONCERTS
We host, or organise ourselves, series of concerts and one-off events:

in 2008 Art Impact Project organised concerts, linked to art displays; the group has since moved elsewhere, but we keep in touch.

in 2009 and 2010 our then-director of music, Elspeth Wilkes, organised three series of Sunday afternoon recitals, with performances of the highest quality.

Since 2011 local musician Fred Thomas, of F-IRE Klang Codex [right], has organised a wide range of concerts with his friends and colleagues, including avant garde jazz, contemporary song, and a series making imaginative links between contemporary and older music (with an emphasis on his great love for Bach). All the performers are highly talented, and a good number of them have gone on to use the church to record CDs, finding the space and the acoustic very sympathetic. More details here, and video clips here.
a local group Gaudeamus performed here in November 2011, and the London Transport choir gave a concert on 24 March 2012.
we also welcomed the London Gallery Quirein 2011. Although our church never had west gallery musicians (we had an organ from the start) their visit was a kind of 'reclaiming' the church for the style of music that would have been sung here before Bryan King introduced a surpliced choir in the sanctuary! We have maintained contact with this splendid group, who plan to come and sing a harvest festival service for us.
in 2012 several students from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance arranged concerts for their friends and supporters.
Among the choirs performing in 2012 were the Brown Derbies, an a cappella choir from Brown University. Rhode Island, in aid of International Alert, and St Andrew's University Madrigal Group.
In 2014 we were delighted to host one of the Sangerstevne concerts - the June 2014 newsletter includes details of this, and links to the three choirs who performed: one from Italy, one a London-based Bulgarian choir, and one a black a cappella group from Redbridge.

We have not just one, but two, good grand pianos - a fine Blüthner, recently-restored, and a late-Victorian Broadwood.

CHURCH VISITS

All the children of our church school, St Paul's CE Whitechapel, come to church for special services at least twice a term, and individual classes come at other times. The London Diocesan Board for Schools provides support for governors and staff, and resources for festivals. The most recent denominational inspection rated the school as 'outstanding' in all four categories - distinciveness and effectiveness as a Church of England School (serving a Muslim-majority intake), collective worship, religious education, leadership and management. Other school groups, primary and secondary, visit for various curriculum projects - not only RE, but history, geography and art (for example, this Religion and Place project by Building Exploratory). Students from colleges and universities study the building and its local context. And adults come, as groups and individuals, often as part of local history or Hawksmoor trails, or during the Open House, East London Heritage, and Ride+Stride weekends. We are always glad to welcome them - particularly those who, out of courtesy and good sense, tell us in advance that they are coming!

Here is a short video made in 2008 for Cancer Research.