Category: Frontpage Article

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St Mary’s trebles star in BBC Music Day

In May a group of trebles and teenagers from St Mary’s choir recorded a composition by Sasha Johnson Manning commissioned for a CBeebies Radio broadcast on BBC Music Day, Saturday 3 June. BBC Music Day is all about connecting communities and generations. This year there was a focus on collaboration; children from four schools in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland helped provide the words and inspiration, which Sasha then moulded brilliantly into a joyful and uplifting setting. One of the chosen schools was our very own Bowdon Church School, whose pupils did a marvellous job helping with the words and recording the England section of the piece.

The trebles and teenagers from St Mary’s choir were tasked with providing the master recording for the full composition, to which recordings of the schools from around the UK were attached. They all worked very hard over the preceding weeks learning the music and then impressed everyone at the BBC with their excellent singing and professional conduct throughout the recording session. A memorable experience for all involved.

Michael Dow, Director of Music
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St Mary’s trebles and teenagers recording at the BBC (photo: Michael Dow)
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Creative prayer in Bowdon Church School

Three areas of our school were recently transformed for ‘Prayer Spaces in Schools’, a national initiative to enable children and young people, of all faiths and none, to explore big questions, spirituality and faith in a safe, creative and interactive way. Our large landing area became a cardboard city where children engaged with the serious issues of homelessness and child trafficking but still had fun hiding in boxes.

Our technology room became a place where children thought about forgiveness, used inflatable globes to help them pray for people all over the world, blew bubbles to illustrate sending prayers up to God and covered a whole wall in post-it note prayers.

In our prayer room, children were challenged to see themselves through God’s eyes—perfect and precious.

A team of indefatigable volunteers ensured that this whirlwind of activity, with all 480 children engaging over three-and-a-half days, offered an opportunity for them to stop and reflect, think of others, laugh and express their emotions.

Now it is all over, it is hard to see the landing in quite the same way!

Mrs Vanessa Horner, Reception teacher, Bowdon Church School

www.prayerspacesinschools.com
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Cardboard city’ on the landing in Bowdon Church School (photo: Mrs Horner)
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St Mary’s Choir thrills Bowdon Festival audience

On Saturday 14 May, those of us who were in St Mary’s were on to a winner. Nothing to do with the Eurovision Song Contest which happened that evening, but our own choir giving a magnificent concert as part of the Bowdon Festival, featuring some of the most beautiful choral music ever written.

Our Director of Music, Michael Dow, had put together a delightful programme of European choral favourites which were, as ever, expertly accompanied by Roger Bryan, our fine organist.

The ambience was created by the subtle purple back-lighting which lit up the chancel and gave a welcoming feel to the church. As we heard the first piece, Haydn’s ‘The heavens are telling’, we realised that we were in for a treat. The choir were in perfect harmony and when at full volume it felt as though they were going to lift the church roof off.

After works by the likes of Palestrina and Brahms we came to Mendelssohn’s ‘Hear my prayer’, where those who hadn’t heard the full piece before were surprised that it contained the better known melody ‘O for the wings of a dove’. The first half ended literally on a high note with Allegri’s ‘Miserere’. The four soloists sang from the bell tower while the choir remained in the body of the church to give us ‘all round sound’.

After a glass of wine in the interval, we returned to hear one of my favourite choral works, Fauré’s ‘Requiem’, with its haunting ‘Pie Jesu’, before the choir sent us to the very gates of heaven with the final movement ‘In Paradisum’.

The choir contribute to the services at St Mary’s every Sunday at 10.45 am and 6.30 pm where they regularly sing to this very high standard but it is easy then to take them a little for granted. So it was lovely to hear them showcase their talent in this wonderful concert. Of extra special note was the way that Michael has brought on three of the young choristers to the point where they are able to perform challenging solos with great aplomb.

John Lambie
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St Mary’s choir in full voice (photo: John Lambie)
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Awards and a Diamond Anniversary at the Palace

How did we end up conversing with the Countess of Wessex in Buckingham Palace’s gardens on one of spring’s finest days, having first been inspired by an amazing woman who had rowed three oceans single-handed, simply to raise environmental awareness? You should ask Sara Calvin, whose persistence four years ago persuaded our church to offer the Duke of Edinburgh (DofE) Award as a much-needed service to the community. It was apt that Sara and Roy Calvin were present as proud parents when their daughter Emily received her Gold Award, together with Ellen Jackson and her parents.

Volunteer Aileen James joined me in presenting the Countess with an emblem representing St Mary’s with St Luke’s, especially created by Clive Goodall for the occasion. In exchange, our church received a metal plaque commemorating the 60th (Diamond) Anniversary of the Award Scheme, recognising Bowdon’s contribution as the largest volunteer DofE Centre in the North of England.

Rower Rosalind Savage MBE, National Geographic’s 2010 Adventurer of the Year, shared a lesson in character development with the young people, recounting how hurt she felt at the vitriol from internet trolls who revelled in her initial failure to cross the Pacific Ocean. Learning not to respond in a way that would ‘feed the trolls’, Rosalind instead let her actions speak louder than words as she succeeded on her next attempt, encouraging us all to be persistent and determined in the midst of negativity.

As the Palace gates closed behind us we reflected on what a privilege it was to represent the church and over 60 adult DofE volunteers past and present who have made it possible to offer the Award to our young people.

Will Sudworth, DofE Manager
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Emily Calvin (centre left) and Ellen Jackson (centre right) and their parents, with Aileen James and Will Sudworth at the Palace gates
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‘I don’t know what to say’

We will all experience occasions when someone we care about deeply is seriously ill, mourning someone who has died or suffering in another way. Our natural response is often to want to spend time with them. However, this can immediately raise the issue of what we should say.

I asked some of the experienced members of our Pastoral Care and Visiting Group if they had any advice for when we find ourselves in these situations. They stressed that we should focus on the needs of the person we are speaking to and try to meet them where they are. They suggested giving them space to talk about how they felt but also being ready to talk about other things, such as shared memories, if that is a possibility. They advised that it can be unhelpful to tell someone that we know exactly how they feel, as we never do because everyone is unique.

Being sensitive to the person’s faith (or lack of it) is important. Telling a Christian that God is with them and will be with them can bring great comfort, because through the life and death of Jesus we know that God truly understands what it is to be fully human and to suffer. But such reassurance would be inappropriate to someone of another faith and may be meaningless or worse to someone with no faith at all.

Sometimes it is enough, or even better, to spend time with someone, without feeling that we have to say anything. In the Old Testament, Job faces great suffering. The reaction of his friends is described in Chapter 2, verse 13:
‘They sat with him on the ground for seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.’
This emphasises how solidarity, support, acceptance and love can be of immense value.

If you have experience of people saying things that were helpful in times of difficulty, we would like it very much if you could send them to me or the BCN Editor, Katharine Perera, Katharine@bowdonchurch.org.

Catherine Cleghorn, Ordinand,
Catherine@bowdonchurch.org
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