LONDON — Enthusiasts in London have launched a campaign urging the U.K. government to recognize England's choral music tradition — specifically Choral Evensong services — as intangible cultural heritage. The campaign coincides with a broader government effort seeking nominations for a nationwide inventory of cultural traditions that should be preserved.

England's choral music tradition has thrived for nearly 500 years. Choral Evensong is an evening service of hymns, psalms and prayers laid out by Thomas Cranmer in 1549. Cranmer was the first Protestant archbishop of the Church of England, and the service is based on the Book of Common Prayer, which he compiled to make English the language of the Church of England after it broke away from the Latin-dominated Catholic Church during the Protestant Reformation. During the services, the choir performs while the congregation participates by listening.

The demands of modern life, declining church attendance and tight funding have made it harder to find and train the next generation of choristers. The Cathedral Music Trust, founded in 1956 to stem the decline of church music after World War II, awarded 500,000 pounds to 28 cathedrals and churches last year. Rochester Cathedral alone spends about 250,000 pounds a year on music.

Jonathan Mayes, CEO of the Cathedral Music Trust, said the tradition requires sustained support. "Whilst it happens every day, it is actually quite fragile. It takes an awful lot of work and it takes a lot of funding to actually make it happen and that doesn't come without effort," Mayes said.

The U.K. government has said that protecting cultural traditions strengthens community identity and bolsters the economy, and that heritage tourism generates billions of pounds in annual spending.

Diarmaid MacCulloch, an emeritus professor at the University of Oxford and an expert on Christianity, said preserving Evensong is important historically because the service was instrumental in the development and spread of modern English. "It is very much a drama, and it is a drama which has been performed by the people of England from 1549 through to the present day. It's far more a vehicle of public consciousness performance than any play of Shakespeare," MacCulloch said.

On a gray afternoon before Easter, around a dozen schoolchildren gathered in a side building at Rochester Cathedral, removed their jackets and backpacks, and donned burgundy cassocks and white surplices before singing. Adrian Bawtree, the music director of the choir at Rochester Cathedral, oversees choristers aged 9 to 13 and leads a youth choir for older children, all backed by professional adult singers.

Bawtree said he first became captivated by church music at about age 9. "When I heard it, it was like big octopus arms came and grabbed me and said, 'You've got to be part of this,'" Bawtree said. He added that Evensong services make it possible for anyone to attend and listen to choral music regardless of their beliefs. "We talk in the world of mindfulness and the power of music to transform lives. This is an extraordinary arena where that can happen," he said.