Have a really happy summer break.......

Choir practices resume on Tuesday 20th September to allow you to take a couple of weeks holiday after the Schools have gone back. The Choir Committee meets the day before, so if you have anything you wish to see raised do contact me, or one of the other Choir Committee members: Sabina & Richard, Terry & Bernard, John, Jeannette and Joan.

Parish Music Workshop - Saturday 15th October

As you may have seen from recent Parish Newsletters, I have now been able to fix this date with Father Deo and the Parish Diary. More details in due course, but if you could pop it into your diaries in the meantime I would be grateful. Cream Teas still on - Yummmm!!

Dates List

Sorry, I completely forgot to bring the copies to give out at Music Checking. Probably just as well, as I've now been able to revise it to include October's Parish Music Workshop!

You will find the latest List HERE to print out and refer to.

Choir's 50th Birthday

The actual Anniversary Date will be Thursday 19 September 2019. We must do something on the actual day - I will personally provide the beverages for the occasion!

Choir Party

What an 'Ab Fab' and wonderfully happy occasion it was, as always.

There have been a number of comments along the lines of 'the food was amongst the best ever', so all credit to those who cooked it, and to Jane for organising it all, and spending the non-cooks' contributions so successfully. It was a truly magnificent spread, that only just survived the enthusiastic onslaught!

Enormous thanks to Jeannette for all she did, as she always does, to ensure the smooth-working of the evening.... especially in being chief drinks buyer! Lemon curd Pavlova? Wow, wouldn't go back the the traditional one now!!!

I most especially thank Father Deo for agreeing to pay for the drinks this year - it's a delight to return to the tradition that the Parish says 'thank you' to us in this way, something that Father Carolin started at the first Choir Party, continued throughout Father Michael's tenure, and then came to a halt after Father Michael departed in 2004.

Very well done to Kitty for the well-earned Choir Member of the Year award - it's only a little thing each year, but it is something I think long and hard about before deciding who to award it to. Many thanks to Joan for the photo - click for a larger copy! There is a list of those who have won it since it was first awarded in 1995 HERE. I have further pics from Joan, and also some pics from her of our trip to Portsmouth; I'll try and make them available for viewing in time for September's UPDATE.

Finally.... if there was an award for bravery, it would go to Mary Cook: it was so lovely to have a little Choir-related ditty sung, something that has often happened over the years, and something that I do hope continues - huge fun; huge kudos to you Mary - can't wait for next year's ditties, from you and from.........!?

St. Bart's 1954: Click on the play arrow, then on the YouTube logo

For those of you who haven't already seen it on the Choir's Web site.....

I was just two days old when this film was taken on 13th June 1954. The organ, choir and gallery appear. At that time there was a spiral staircase to the organ loft from the Ellison Road end (now the porch) of the back of the church.

Father Miller was the Parish Priest then (nice footage of him delivering his sermon) and either Father Diamond or Father McCarthy would have been the curate on duty - one left sometime in 1954 as the other arrived. Perhaps an old-timer might view the footage and know?

The only Choir at the time was referred to as the 'Men's Choir', and it may have been directed by Noel Murphy or Thad Allen on this occasion, I'm not sure which. They are all singing the plainchant from their Libers.

By the time I arrived on the scene the new 1966 gallery had been built (the original seen in the film only went forward as far as it is level at the back of our gallery, so very narrow indeed).

The little organ you see (one manual, no pedals) existed until the current instrument was installed in 1972, and I remember it well - we learned much of our early repertoire with this, and I well remember the struggle to play Kitson in D meaningfully on it! Thank goodness Father Carolin showed his confidence in Anne Rowntree and the Choir by commissioning our current instrument from F.H. Browne & Son.

Father Gerald Coates was also Ordained (probably the day before) at St. Bart's. Wonderful footage. Kudos to Fr. Z for airing it.

HERE is a picture of Father Coats (in the wheelchair) after celebrating his 60th Ordination Anniversary in 2014.

His current health leaves him in need of prayers, please.

Cantors

From next term, I shall have a fifteen minute session with each of you from 7.30pm on the penultimate Tuesday before you sing to assist you in carrying out your role to the best of your abilities.

Plainchant Choir

There will be no practice on 14th September before 18th September Mass. The next will take place at 7.30pm on Tuesday 11th October to prepare for Mass on 16th October.

Rome 1990 & 1994

It has often been suggested that we have an evening to view the old Rome videos from 1990 and 1994 - they will probably frighten a number of us 25+ years on!!!.... That said, I'm happy to arrange this, along with a few drinks and nibbles. Let me know.

Deacon Ged

A very warm welcome to our Deacon Ged as he starts his ministry here at St. Bart's.

May it be long and fruitful.

He is a real 'parish man' - click HERE to find out more about him and his background. We really look forward to him singing the Exsultet at next year's Easter Vigil!

Christmas 2016

A gentle one this year, with, hopefully, a wind band to help us celebrate the occasion. I have bowed to the pressure of including a Rutter item, and, as you will have noted, the Shepherd's Pipe Carol is now present in your folders in readiness, after an absence of many years.

Please do print out, and have a little look at, Sleep! Holy Babe! which is also now in your folders. I found it in Carols New and Old, a book published in the last decade of the 1800s or the first of the 1900s I would guess, and edited by Sir John Stainer. A simple little miniature which took the place in your folders at Music Checking of On the Birthday by the same composer.

There will undoubtedly...

... come a time over the next year or so when the lighting, the sound system and much of the electrics will be replaced in the church. It is quite likely redecoration of the church will follow, so it is probable that the organ will have to be sealed to prevent dust and debris getting into the works and pipes.

For your summer coffee breaks

The strange future of parish life: a commentary from Damian Thompson from The Catholic Herald.

Ian Visits has an eclectic list of things to do and see in London during August. The London Sewing Machine Museum in Balham has an open day......

Lidl wins Good Housekeeping Institute's Best Supermarket 2016 award - runners up Aldi and Waitrose.

Why you don't always want to have a pilot's eye view when you're flying; and why you do, mostly!

Those most irritating mobile telephone ring tones as a virtuoso arrangement for piano!

Angus Deayton and Rowan Atkinson lead us through the pitfalls of elementary dating.

Great pics of parishioner Louis Desa's Retirement Mass at St. Georges Cathedral after his long-standing headship at Bishop Thomas Grant. Lovely to see the School Choir filling the choir stalls. What an inspirational  headmaster he has been.

Joanne Harris's Memories of south west London. Wonderful pictures with backgrounds that may recall more recent times.

The 7½ miles from Charing Cross milestone between Beatrice Avenue and Norbury Court Road Pic 1 Pic 2.

Michael Bentine explains in 1963 why it would be madness for Britain to join the Common Market.

Anyone remember the days of motor racing at Crystal Palace?

National Trust tours of 'crap town' Croydon!

Surprising facts about some very well known BBC Theme tunes.

Significant Anniversaries in August 2016. If you click on see all anniversaries beneath the list shown, you will be faced with a staggering collection of other anniversaries during August, neatly listed chronologically by calendar date!

Adult Catechesis for Mass Father Carolin-style - something for everyone, and why.

An extraordinary collection of recordings from the London Sound Survey.

The Gravity Train - short clip from BBC2's new series Full Steam Ahead (Episode 1/6 was shown on 21st July).

And finally, probably the last recording of the Kings College organ at Cambridge prior to its dismantling. Jupiter from Holst's The Planets played as a duet by the organ scholars Tom Etheridge and Richard Gowers after the final Evensong.

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