Latest news with #Evensong
Reuters
18-03-2025
- General
- Reuters
Fact Check: Pakistan flag at Westminster Abbey is for national day, not Holy Week
A video of London's Westminster Abbey flying Pakistan's flag in 2024 during its annual observance of a tradition dating back over 50 years has been shared online again with the false claim that it shows the church's 'holy week' commemorations in 2025. The video was originally posted, opens new tab to X on March 22, 2024, by the Pakistan High Commission in London. It said the green and white flag was hoisted, opens new tab because a commission representative attended Evensong that evening, ahead of Pakistan Day on March 23. Holy Week is the seven days leading up to Easter, and in 2024 began on March 24, the day after Pakistan Day. In an email to Reuters, a spokesperson for the Pakistan High Commission said the video is a year old and that the flag has not yet been flown at Westminster Abbey in 2025. Pakistan's High Commissioner and other officials have been invited to the church for Evensong on March 24 this year, a day after Pakistan Day. Holy Week doesn't begin until April 13. While the 'Flag of St. Peter' or the 'Abbey Flag' are typically flown over Westminster Abbey, which is the site of coronations, weddings and burials of British royalty, its website says, opens new tab there are also exceptions. This includes when a national flag is flown on the day the High Commission of a Commonwealth member state is represented at Evensong. Westminster Abbey did not respond to a request for comment. However, when Reuters previously addressed the misrepresented video, an Abbey spokesperson said at the time that it was a decades-long tradition to fly the flag of a Commonwealth nation when its high commission attends Evensong, marking the country's national day. VERDICT Miscaptioned. The video shows Westminster Abbey flying Pakistan's flag in 2024, unrelated to Holy Week in 2025. This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work.
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- General
- Yahoo
David Adams obituary
My father, David Adams, who has died aged 80 of oesophageal cancer, was a well-known musical director, teacher and community impresario; he recently celebrated 50 years as church organist. Later in his career David played a key role in devising the musical curriculum on a national level and became an Ofsted school inspector. He also spent 20 years as the chair of Edexcel examiners for GSCE music. Born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, to Edith (nee Winter) and William Adams, a shipbuilder at Rosyth docks, by the age of 11 David was regularly playing the organ at the local congregational church and at the Methodist church, where they had a small foot pedal instrument. He attended Kirkcaldy high school and went on to study music at Edinburgh University in the 1960s, where he was awarded the Alfred Hollins Memorial Organ scholarship, and also gained a diploma from the Royal College of Music, London. In Edinburgh he met Patricia Stevenson and they married in 1966. Intending to pursue postgraduate study in church music, David and Patricia moved to Cambridge. There he joined Sawston Village college, a secondary school opened in 1930, in order to gain some practical teaching experience, and became director of music and a member of the college's senior management team. David began playing the organ at All Saints Church in Little Shelford in 1974 and was also musical director for the local community orchestra, Sawston Light Opera Group, Sawston Youth Drama and Duxford Music Workshop. He encouraged everyone to join in. His orchestras were inclusive and it did not matter if he had six flutes and two violins. He wanted everyone to be part of the music and enjoy it. He made Sawston Village college a renowned centre of musical excellence. Young students started out hesitantly, then became confident performers, with many going on to professional careers as musicians. He loved church music and in his spare time spent many hours in King's College Chapel and Ely Cathedral, especially in order to take part in his favourite service, Evensong. In his retirement David was an active Freemason and served as organist for five Masonic chapters: United Grand Lodge, Supreme Grand Chapter, Mark, Royal and Select Masters and the Red Cross of Constantine. Patricia died in 2023. David is survived by his children, Ruth, Pete and me, and his brother, Hadyn.
