Why write new church music? The question is as absurd as asking, why write new love songs? Composers create church music in response to the experience of faith; and faith is different in every age.

Even so, it defies reason to imagine that a festival of unheard church music is going to be other than a hard sell, but that is the task ahead for the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music (7-15 May), which for the next week brings a repast of raw, untasted scores as it has done annually since its inception in 2002.

Centred on the Anglican St Pancras Church in London’s Euston, the festival brings together exciting, virgin settings of ancient and modern texts from across the world. The character of St Pancras is appropriate too: he was a 13-year-old martyred in fourth-century Rome for standing up to the Emperor Diocletian; his story captivated the Anglo-Saxons when it was told to them with vivid embroidery by St Augustine, and played its part in their conversion.

The Parish of St Pancras cherished its stubborn reputation and at the Reformation remained celebrating Mass longer than any other. The festival recalls the saint in a votive Eucharist at lunchtime on St Pancras’ feast day on 12 May, which includes three new works: a Missa brevis, an anthem and an organ ­voluntary. The saint will also be honoured by the London premiere of the Revelation text, O quam gloriosum, by Gabriel Jackson, whose music today is sung by every cathedral choir in the land. The line that begins with the floating dissonances of Russian Orthodox choirs and continues through Pärt and Tavener now connects to Jackson.