Patronal Festivals 2025
With financial support from our generous donors dozens of churches across the country celebrated their Patronal Festival - or Feast of Title - throughout 2025.
Now entering its second year the Patronal Festival Grants inspire an extraordinary breadth of creativity, worship and community life across churches of every size and tradition. The reports above show just how wide the reach has become, from tiny rural chapels to busy parish churches, from Sussex to Cumbria, from Kent to Wales and Ireland. Some festivals revived Evensong after decades of silence; others welcomed professional choirs, Come-and-Sing groups or home grown ensembles finding their confidence again. Congregations frequently doubled, trebled or, in one case, grew “from 12 to 74”, with many noting that they welcomed people who had never set foot in the church before. One organiser wrote that the event “reawakened a certain resonance” in their ancient building; another shared that the service “was not a one off, but a springboard” for future music making.
What unites these stories is the transformative impact of good music, generous hospitality and a clear moment of celebration. Again and again people speak of the beauty of the worship and the strength of community it created: “a truly memorable way to conclude our festival”; “a proper party and celebration”; “a wonderful and uplifting occasion”. Several parishes have already committed to making their Patronal Evensong an annual event, while others are planning new choirs, expanded music programmes, arts festivals and pilgrimages as a direct result of the momentum created.
For anyone considering hosting a Patronal Festival Choral Evensong of their own, these reports show just how adaptable the model can be. Whether working with a visiting choir, drawing singers from the region or encouraging a small parish group to take its first steps, the result can be joyful, faith building and community widening. Above all, the reports reveal the same message: with a little support, churches can rediscover the power of Evensong to bring people together, enrich worship and allow music to speak with fresh vitality.
In 2025 the Church Times ran an article about the Grants, which you can read here.
To apply for a Grant for 2026 click here.
Patronal Festival Grant Donors 2025
Our grateful thanks to the following donors whose generosity and kindness enabled the 2025 Grants to be awarded.
Ralph Allwood
Lindsay Badenoch
Driss Ben Brahim
Emma Bridgewater
Angelika, Countess of Cawdor
Maurits and Erika Dolmans
William Eccles
Peter Fry
Peter Gangsted
John Goldsmith
Guy Hayward
Sir Jonathan Jones
Ivor, Earl of Plymouth
Cosmo Sheldrake
Merlin Sheldrake
Rupert Sheldrake
Jonathan Tod
Ian, Lucinda and Victoria Watson
Simon Yates
Anon (via CAF)
Support the Patronal Festival Grant Initiative
A donation of £250 can provide a festivities grant for a church with its own choir, while £500 enables a full patronal festival grant, allowing a church to invite a visiting choir to sing choral evensong. Your contribution could help fund patronal festivities at historic churches such as the medieval Bartlemas Chapel in Oxford or St Collen’s Church in Llangollen, Wales. Alternatively, it could support full patronal festivals at East Coker, Somerset—where T.S. Eliot is interred—or St John of Beverley Church in Whatton-in-the-Vale, Nottinghamshire.
All donations, big or small, will be gratefully received. You can donate online, including Gift Aid, at this link: nowdonate.com/checkout/the-choral-evensong-trust.
REPORTS ON 2025 FESTIVALS
St Alban's, Oxford
St Aidan's, Carlisle
All Saints, Turkdean
Allerton Church, Axbridge
St Anne's, East Wittering
The Annunciation, Brighton
Bartlemas Chapel, Oxford
Bolton Parish Church
St Boniface, Woodgreen
St Botolph's Church. Swyncombe
Eglys Sant Caron, Tregaron
St Collen's, Llangollen
St George's, Benenden
St George's, Donnington
Holy Cross, Goodnestone
Holy Trinity, Forest Row
Holy Trinity, Godmanstone
St James's, Cameley
St John the Baptist, Ystrad Meurig, Ceredigion
St John of Beverley, Whatton
St Laurence's, Farmer
St Laurence's, Guestling
St Marks, Newport
St Margaret's, Burnham Norton
St Martin, Eglywsbach
St Mary's, Bitton
St Mary's. Burnham Market
St Mary's, Chepstow
St Mary's, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary
St Mary's, Ross-on-Wye
St Mary's, Slaugham, West Sussex
St Mary's, Storrington
St Mary the Virgin, Bishop's Frome
St Matthew's, Kingsley
Michaelston-y-Fedw
St Michael & All Angels, East Coker
St Michael and All Angels, Dinder
St Nicholas, Bishop's Sutton
St Nicholas, Kittisford
St Nicholas, Islip
St Peter's, Bexhill-on-Sea
St Peter's, Shepton Montague
St Peter-ad-Vincula, Folkington
St Peter & St Paul, Cattistock
St Peter & St Paul, Muchelney
St Petrock's, Timberscombe
Taunton Minster
St Thomas a Becket, Lewes
St Thomas the Apostle, Groombridge
