YouTube recording of Hannah's Mass 

If you missed this wonderful and very moving service with Music composed by our own Philip Sunderland then here is a chance to view this recording.

At 6.30 pm on the 5th October 2025 there was a special communion service at St Mary’s Church, Saffron Walden comprising the première of a mass setting by Philip Sunderland, a member of the congregation and a conductor/composer who wrote the community opera The Glass Knight for Saffron Hall. 

The service can be viewed on YouTube below and the service sheet can be downloaded here.

Hannah’s Mass has been written to commemorate the life of Philip’s sister Hannah, who sadly died from breast cancer. The piece is inspired by her and by a quotation of C.S. Lewis, which is a sort of family mantra: “Joy is the serious business of heaven.” Scored for choir, organ, brass and a battery of percussion, the mass setting is eclectic in style, reflecting Hannah’s wide tastes in music (probably the world’s first ever calypso Hosanna!) but has its sombre moments. The Agnus Dei is punctuated by fifty-seven chimes on the passing bell, one ring for each year of Hannah’s remarkable life.