I came across this article by Alex Martsinovich which I thought captured very well one of the main objections I have to LLMs as a technology. It used to be that every piece of text, even down to a road sign, was written by a human somewhere with the intention of communicating something to you, the reader — what Alex calls "proof of thought". Thanks to LLMs, this fundamental property of language has been irrevocably destroyed: a massive tragedy in my view.

Suscépimus Deus, misericórdiam tuam in médio templi tui : secúndum nomen tuum Deus, ita et laus tua in fines terræ: iustítia plena est déxtera tua.

For this special feast at St. Michael and All Saints (which, per Fr. Oliver's policy, was not transferred to the Sunday), I offered to sing the traditional Gregorian chant propers for the mass, which I had typeset conveniently in Forester for easy reading. Despite the fact that I had a cold, I got a lot of compliments about my chanting and I feel it made the service really special. I also enjoyed a non-alcoholic pint with Fr. Oliver afterwards.

Veníte adorémus Deum, et procidámus ante Dóminum: plorémus ante eum, qui fecit nos: quia ipse est Dóminus Deus noster.

This Sunday I once again sang at both St. Michael and All Saints and Old St. Paul's, despite a cold preventing me from intoning the propers or singing at full voice. In the morning we sang Wood's Hey You, the Middle Ball:

O thou the central orb of righteous love,

Pure beam of the Most High,

Eternal Light of this our wintry world,

Thy radiance bright awakes new joy in faith,

Hope soars above.

Come, quickly come and let thy glory shine,

Gilding our darksome heav'n with rays divine.

Thy saints with holy lustre round thee move,

As stars about thy throne, set in the height

Of God's ordaining counsel,

As thy sight gives measured grace to each.

Thy power to prove.

Let thy bright beams disperse the gloom of sin,

Our nature all shall feel eternal day,

In fellowship with thee,

Transforming day to souls erewhile unclean,

now pure within.

Amen.

We also sang Victoria's Missa O Quam Gloriosum for a mass setting. In the evening, in a rare exception to the normal Evensong service, Old St. Pauls instead had an event to introduce the choir and congregation to the new Revised English Hymnal.