October 2021
Holy Communion
This beautiful service of Holy Communion, using the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, begins at 8.00am every Sunday. This service includes a sermon, but no hymns, and lasts for approximately 45 minutes. You are also warmly invited to join us for Holy Communion on Wednesdays at 12 noon and Saturdays at 8.30am.
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‘Freedom’ Service – to mark anti-slavery day
TO MARK ANTI-SLAVERY DAY 18TH OCTOBER 2021 At today's special Unseen ‘Freedom’ service, we will be holding before God the estimated 40 million people trapped in slavery worldwide, and the tens of thousands who are victims in the UK – women, men and children. Modern slavery can be found across all our communities in Britain. In this special service we will be raising awareness of the issue, and reflecting on how we can transform lives and bring freedom to the…
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Footprint Celebration Service
A service to celebrate the Abbey nearing completion of its Footprint project, with Abbey’s supporters, congregation, staff and volunteers, followed by a Thanksgiving reception and a tour. The Footprint Celebration Service will include music from the Abbey choirs, interviews with some of the people involved in the Footprint Project and a sermon from the guest preacher, the Dean of Westminster Abbey, The Very Reverend Dr David Hoyle. Tickets are required for this service and are available to book through Eventbrite.
Find out more »Morning Prayer
A simple, said service to help prepare us for the day ahead. We hope you'll join us.
Find out more »Evening Prayer
Join us in the Abbey for this said service of Evening Prayer as we bring the day to a Godly end in the stillness of this holy space.
Find out more »Lunchtime Organ Recitals
Free lunchtime organ recitals in the Abbey, taking place every Tuesday from 6 July to 26 October. The recitals are free but need to be booked in advance through Eventbrite. For details of the musicians taking part, please see below: 6 July - Shean Bowers, Bath Abbey 13 July - Hayden Payne, Bath 20 July - Huw Williams, Bath Abbey 27 July - George Bevan, Monkton Combe School, Bath 3 August - Gary Desmond, St Mary’s, Bathwick 10 August -…
Find out more »Holy Communion
This beautiful service of Holy Communion, using the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, begins at 8.30am every Saturday. This service includes a sermon, but no hymns, and lasts for approximately 45 minutes. You are also warmly invited to join us for Holy Communion on Wednesdays at 12 noon and Sundays at 8am.
Find out more »Holy Communion
This beautiful service of Holy Communion, using the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, begins at 12pm every Wednesday. This service includes a sermon, but no hymns, and lasts for approximately 45 minutes. You are also warmly invited to join us for Holy Communion on Saturdays at 8.30am and Sundays at 8am.
Find out more »Choral Evensong
The Service of Choral Evensong is a peaceful and prayerful service. It lasts for approximately 45 minutes, blending the much-loved traditional liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer (1662) with a rich repertoire of English Church music.
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Half-Term Fun: Super Shields
Take part in our special event this half-term as part of Museums Week. Follow a trail to find coats of arms, then design your own shield – what colours and symbols will you include? Throughout Bath Abbey, you can see coats of arms dating from the 1500s to the 1900s. Some are painted stone in the fan-vaulting (ceiling), some are stained glass windows and others are carved into marble monuments on the walls. The reasons for having a coat of…
Find out more »Church Family Communion
A family service with crèche and children’s groups. The service lasts just over an hour and combines prayer and praise with glorious music from our Abbey Choir and thoughtful preaching. The atmosphere is relaxed and children are warmly welcomed. There are children's groups during term-time and a crèche is offered all year round. Everyone is invited to stay on after the service to chat over a cup of fresh coffee or tea.
Find out more »Sung Eucharist
This formal service, which lasts approximately 70 minutes, combines elegant liturgy, thoughtful preaching and magnificent music.
Find out more »Choral Evensong
This beautiful service lasts for approximately 45 minutes and combines the memorable cadences of Thomas Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer with a distinctive repertoire of English Church music. During term-time these services are sung by the Abbey's choirs of Girls and Men, or Boys and Men. Occasionally these services may be sung by the Bath Abbey Chamber Choir and during the holidays, by visiting choirs.
Find out more »Informal Service
A short reflective service with reflections on Scripture, prayers and lighting candles supported by instrumental musicians, which lasts for approximately 30 minutes. This informal evening service also welcomes everyone of all ages to worship and prayer, and draws on the worship style of Taize. We are uniquely positioned, with our half a million visitors a year to the Abbey, to listen to and to celebrate stories of faith from around the world, and this is what we aim to do…
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Half-Term Fun: Stunning Stained Glass
Take part in our special event this half-term as part of Museums Week. Follow a trail to discover our beautiful windows, then create a colourful window or glass jar of your own. Bath Abbey has been called the Lantern of the West because it has so many glass windows - 52 in total. The oldest stained (coloured) glass is from about 1604 while the most recent is from 1953. The windows tell stories from the Bible and show saints and…
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Half-Term Fun: Creative Clay Carving
Take part in our special event this half-term as part of Museums Week. Follow a trail to see the beautiful Tudor stone carvings inside the Abbey then carve your own clay tile. Bath Abbey is full of beautiful stone carvings everywhere you look. The Chantry Chapel was built by Prior William Birde in 1515 and has plants, animals and people everywhere you look. You will see lots of birds and the letter W carved into the stone. This is called…
Find out more »Bath Bach Choir – Brahms, Ein Deutsches Requiem
Saturday 30 October 2021 Bath Abbey, 7.30pm Tickets from £18-£28 https://bathboxoffice.org.uk/whatson/brahms-ein-deutsches-requiem/ Described by Clara Schumann as "An immense piece that takes hold of one's whole being like very little else", Brahms's German Requiem combines magic, poetry and romanticism with profound seriousness, to deeply moving effect. As a Lutheran rather than a Roman Catholic, Brahms wrote the oratorio in German and called it "a human requiem", weaving together themes of consolation for the living, as well as hope for the…
Find out more »November 2021
Remembrance Concert
Join the Abbey choirs as they sing beautiful and comforting music for Remembrance including the evocative Song for Athene by Tavener, famously sung at Princess Diana’s funeral in 1997. Other pieces include Durufle’s poignant In paradisum from his Requiem and William Harris’ beautiful Faire is the heaven – a setting of Edmund Spenser’s poem. The Girls will sing Schubert’s incomparable Litanei Alle Seelen and For the Fallen by Mark Blatchly, based on the poem by Laurence Bunyon. Other items include…
Find out more »Choral Evensong
The Service of Choral Evensong is a peaceful and prayerful service. It lasts for approximately 45 minutes, blending the much-loved traditional liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer (1662) with a rich repertoire of English Church music.
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Luke Jerram’s Museum of the Moon
Luke Jerram's incredible touring exhibition, Museum of the Moon, will be on display in the Abbey from 20 November - 24 December. Come and see this amazing artwork in our beautiful Abbey or join one of our many events that will take place during the exhibition. There will be Christmas carols, magical storytelling and moon-gazing with the Bath Astronomers, all under the light of the Moon in the Abbey’s newly restored worship space.
Find out more »All Night Vigil – Sergei Rachmaninov
This will be an evening to remember as the Abbey girls and Lay-clerks sing the atmospheric and uplifting music written for the Russian Orthodox liturgy by Sergei Rachmaninov. Rachmaninov’s masterpiece was written in 1915 and this rich and sonorous work is written entirely for unaccompanied chorus and sung in Church Slavonic. Performed under the Museum of the Moon, and combined with the Abbey’s beautiful acoustic, this will be a hypnotic and mesmerising experience - let your hearts be drawn to…
Find out more »Holy Communion (BCP)
This beautiful service of Holy Communion, using the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, begins at 8am every Sunday. This service includes a sermon, but no hymns, and lasts for approximately 40 minutes. No tickets are required, but limited seating is available (on a first-come, first-serve basis) due to social distancing measures. Keeping you safe We look forward to welcoming you and are taking every care to ensure a Covid secure Abbey: We are limiting the number attending services Chairs will…
Find out more »December 2021
A Christmas Celebration with the Bath Abbey Choir and Melody Makers
A festive selection of well-known Christmas classics for choir, organ and audience. To help get into the festive spirit, there will be plenty of opportunities for audience participation and to singalong. Featuring the Abbey Choir of Girls, Boys and Lay-clerks directed by Huw Williams, Director of Music, Bath Abbey, and the Abbey’s youngest Choir of 6-11 year olds, the Melody Makers directed by Shean Bowers, Assistant Director of Music, Bath Abbey. Tickets: £18, 13, and £8 (16s and under half…
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A Baroque Christmas at Bath Abbey
A Baroque Christmas at Bath Abbey featuring Vivaldi’s Gloria and Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit. Bath Abbeys Choirs are joined by Baroque instrumentalists Rejouissance playing on historic instruments. With carols for audience and a feast of glorious Christmas music from Venice and Paris. Directed by Huw Williams, continuo organ Shean Bowers. Tickets £20, £15 and £10 (16s and under half price) available from Bath Box Office.
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