At St David’s Church at 2pm there is a Service of Music, Reflection and Prayer for Good Friday, also livestreamed from St David’s Church Exeter Facebook page.
We are obliged this year to space out our services held in both Churches on site to ensure the safety of our visitors, clergy and choir.
Traditionally at St Michael’s on Good Friday morning, the Good Friday Liturgy of the Pre-sanctified and Veneration of the Holy Cross is sung. The Liturgy for Good Friday is found via the bar below.
The Reproaches are set to music by Chris Upton, formerly of the Choir of St Michael’s.
O my people, what have I done to you? How have I offended you?
The Veneration of the Cross, Crux Fidelis, attr. King John IV of Portugal (1604 – 1656)
Crux fidelis, inter omnes arbor una nobilis: nulla silva talem profert, fronde, flore, germine.
Dulce lignum, dulces clavos, dulce pondus sustinet.
Faithful Cross, among all, the one noble tree; no other forest offers such leaf, flower and seed.
Sweet the wood, sweet the nails, sweet the weight it bears.
These words are part of a 6th Century hymn by Venantius Fortunatus, written for the procession that brought a part of the true Cross to the Frankish Queen Radegunda in 570. Interestingly, she is patron saint of Jesus College, Cambridge, which was founded on the site of a 12th Century Nunnery. A chapel in Exeter Cathedral is also named after her.
Directions
St David's Church, Queen’s Terrace, Exeter EX4 4HR