Music for March 8

This Sunday’s anthem is “O Saviour of the World” by the English composer and church musician John Goss (1800–1880). Goss served for many years as organist of St Paul’s Cathedral and was an important figure in the renewal of Anglican church music in the 19th century. The anthem sets a devotional text drawn from the medieval Latin hymn Salvator mundi, salva nos (“O Savior of the world, save us”). Its title echoes the language of this week’s Gospel, John 4:5-42, where the people of Samaria come to recognize Jesus and proclaim him “the Savior of the world.”