October 29 brings a landmark musical achievement for a mostly "silent" order of nuns from Sussex.
The Poor Clares of Arundel have completed a week at Number One in the classical charts with their "chilled-out" album of contemplative Catholic church music.
Members of the enclosed order say they hope "Light For The World" can bring "peace and inner calm".
The album, released by Decca Records, came about when classical musicians and producers James Morgan and Juliette Pochin approached members of the enclosed community, noting that a recording of the sisters' singing, allied to contemporary chilled beats or musical textures, might be a doorway to inner silence and calm for some listeners.
James told Global Sisters' Report:
"We were looking for a community that enjoyed singing and were good at it."
In an interview, he added there was a personal connection to the nuns:
"I have a very old connection with these Poor Clares. The cousin of one of my mother's great friends is in that order."
To the same publication, Juliette described the setting they gave the nuns' singing:
"We tried to update it and make it a bit more accessible because I think a lot of young people today don't know Gregorian chant.
"They don't go to church, and if they do, Gregorian chant is not necessarily heard that often."
From the convent, Sr. Aelred Casey told Global Sisters' Report:
"We would love the CD to enable people to connect with Francis and Clare, those lovely iconic saints in whose footsteps we try to walk and who have such a wonderful spirituality for our present times of conflict, oppression, climate change and displacement.
"I'd be happy if some of the young people who might listen and have no bedrock of faith in their lives gained some sense of a person, a mysterious being out there whose meaning is love, as Julian of Norwich says, and that they are not alone in this tough world."
The Poor Clares of Arundel have more information about their CD here, which is also available via many popular download and streaming services.
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