Public ticket ballot for Vespers service at Hampton Court Palace’s Chapel Royal now open

11 January 2016

The free public ballot for tickets to attend the Vespers service at Hampton Court Palace’s Chapel Royal is now open via the Classic FM website. Click here to enter.

On Tuesday 9 February history will be made when the Genesis Foundation and the Choral Foundation bring together leaders of the Catholic Church and the Church of England for the first service according to the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church to be celebrated since the 1550s at Hampton Court Palace’s Chapel Royal.

This historic service of Vespers in King Henry VIII’s chapel will be celebrated by His Eminence Cardinal Vincent Nichols and will include a sermon from The Rt Revd and Rt Hon Dr Richard Chartres, KCVO, Bishop of London and Dean of Her Majesty’s Chapels Royal ­– an unprecedented coming together of the Catholic and Anglican churches on such an historically important site.

The musical element of the service has been chosen and will be performed by Harry Christophers and his ensembles The Sixteen and Genesis Sixteen. Paying tribute to the rich and turbulent religious history of the Chapel Royal, the ensembles will sing Thomas Tallis’ Magnificat, William Cornysh’s Salve Regina and John Taverner’s ‘Leroy’ Kyrie.

Before Vespers is celebrated, the Cardinal and Dean will be in conversation under the heading Faith and the Crown in the Great Hall.