It has been a busy but great few days here in Gloucester with excursions, rehearsals, evensong and fellowship. The choir continues to sing very well and a good time is being had by all. We are grateful for the many, many blessings of this time together.
Friday we sang a special Evensong at the cathedral celebrating the 30th anniversary of the charity tic+, which helps teens in crisis. It was attended by many, including the cathedral trustees, service users, and other organization officials. The mayor came back to see us, too. She requested a photo with us for her office and again thanked us for singing at her installation. Several of us enjoyed chatting at length with her after the service.
We weren’t sure if we would have an organ for the service, or if Alfred, our organist, would be able to use the camera network to see Ben from high up in the organ loft. The cathedral pipe organ is out for a three year renovation, so the temporary electronic instrument runs on a windows based computer. Luckily, cathedral IT staff and Alfred’s ingenuity got us back up and running. However, we did just learn that our Sunday morning service will not be live streamed due to difficulties stemming from this same IT outage.
Tonight the choir sang another beautiful Evensong. After knocking the Magnificat out of the park, I sat down, looked up at the glorious fan vaulting of the ceiling of this majestic place, and couldn’t help but feel the love of God surrounding us all and uniting us in that love. It was one of those transformative moments one doesn’t forget quickly.
The great Winston Churchill once said, “we shape our buildings, and our buildings shape us.” There is no doubt that this cathedral church, and our experience of worship and music here - of God’s beauty - has left a mark on our hearts and in our souls that will remain with us throughout life and continually deepen our work of singing praises to God.
Soli Deo Gloria,
Ben Keseley
Album Cover
Photo of the Day
The Altos, as altos do, enlisted Steve Green for a professional album cover photo shoot. It took a spot of time. So we get Altos and Basses today.
The Altos: Dee and the Monotones
The Basses: Lost in wonder
Our Basses, did not hire a professional photographer, rather a sketch artist for one.
