Evensong has taken place since the arrival of the Augustinian Canons in the twelfth century, and the tradition of the saying of psalms and meditating on the word of God at the time of the lighting of the evening lamps goes back to the worship of the synagogue. The form of prayer we use goes back to our monastic founders who sang Vespers in the evening and Compline before retiring to sleep. In the sixteenth century Archbishop Cranmer put these two services together to form the office we have today. The form of this service is simple and direct. We are called to worship by the words of the Preces. We pray the Psalms, and through them identify with the joys and sorrows, hopes and failures, of all humanity. We hear the words of Scripture in the Old and New Testaments, which build up God's people through a deeper understanding of His ways with humanity. We respond to the Word of God in the Canticles, the Magnificat (the Song of Mary) and the Nunc Dimittis (the Song of Simeon), and are invited to reflect with Mary on the opportunities God has set before us to participate in the establishment of His kingdom, and to understand with Simeon that both the expectation and longing of humanity, and the fulfilment of this waiting, are united in Christ. We proclaim our faith through the words of the Creed; and we join in prayer for the world and for the church in petitions, which are ‘Collected’ up in the prayer of the day, the time or the feast. The Cathedral Choir normally sing the service and in music they articulate prayers and praises on our behalf. We hope that joining in this ancient tradition may afford you the opportunity to be lost ‘in wonder, love and praise.’(I am grateful to Canon Clover of Bristol Cathedral for providing this short introduction which appears on the Cathedral Evensong service booklets)