Events and Services at Dore Abbey
and neighbouring churches
Midnight Mass at the Abbey
A candlelit celebration of Holy Communion with carols.
Dress warmly.
Holy Communion at The Cockyard
Join the local churches at the very special Cockyard venue for this Prayer Book service of Holy Communion. All welcome.
Celebrate the Foundation of Dore Abbey
Join Archdeacon Derek Chedzey to celebrate the foundation of the abbey in 1147.
Ash Wednesday Contemplative Eucharist
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, and the journey towards Holy Week and Easter. Services on this day help prompt reflection on what it means to be human and how Lent invites us to be more adventurous.
A contemplative eucharist helps us dwell with silence and music rather than a procession of words. The Unicorn Singers will provide a wonderful setting of Psalm 61, the Miserere, by James McMillan.
Those who wish to may receive the sign of the cross on their forehead in ash made from last year’s Palm Crosses.
Choral Eucharist with Bishop Richard, and the commissioning of Diane Bates as Anna Chaplain
Bishop Richard will commission Diane Bates as Anna Chaplaincy in the Diocese of Hereford.
Music will be provided by the Unicorn Singers under the direction of Stephen Marshall, director and organist at St Catwg’s Church, Llangattock.
Discover more about Anna Chaplaincy here.
Anna Chaplaincy
Anna Chaplaincy seeks to accompany older people at this age and stage of their lives. It is an ecumenical, community-based, chaplaincy promoting the spiritual welfare of older people. Anna Chaplaincy is a person-centred and non-judgemental ministry for people of strong, little or no faith at all.
The Unicorn Singers
The Unicorn Singers, a choir of around thirty, specialises in exploring exciting repertoires from the Medieval, Renaissance, and Early Baroque periods.
Holy Communion
The Abbey, in common with all Cistercian foundations, is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The earliest feasts relating to Mary grew from the cycle of feast days that celebrated the birth of Jesus. To these were added celebrations of Mary’s life - her conception, birth, presentation in the Temple in Jerusalem, and her death.
September 8th celebrates Mary’s birth, known from the 6th century as Marymas and recorded in a hymn of that era. It falls nine months after the feast celebrating her conception.
In France, Marymas is known as Our Lady of the Grape Harvest and the best bunches of grapes are taken to churches to be blessed. Not unlike our celebration of Lammas - loaf mass - on 1st August when the first bread from the first harvest of barley was blessed.
The Birth of Mary
The Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary
by Giotto, in the Scrovegni Chapel
Padua, Italy (c. 1305)