Our Wednesday Word of Witness comes from Mary Garner who received a long service award for her dedication and commitment to singing in the choir. Mary writes:
To receive an award for long
service in the choir is a great honour as well as a surprise, something I had
never expected. To be recognised for something you love doing is strange.
I have always loved
singing—from very young, singing in the school choir, to then later in life
joining the Cathedral choir. I have now been a member for about 28 years.
I moved into the Cathedral
parish in 1982 from St Bernadette's, but it was a number of years before I
thought to join the choir and use singing as a ministry. It is St Augustine who is
reputed to have said that singing is praising God twice.
I have seen many changes in
the Cathedral choir over the years. In the early years I can remember singing
in folk masses with guitars and eventually mixed voice choir for soprano, alto,
tenor and bass, under the directorship of Fr Callaghan and then Mathew Barker,
who was a choir member and a teacher locally. The choir blossomed under his
directorship and we sang some wonderful music for mixed choirs. But as with all things in
life, people move on, some people left for jobs elsewhere, moved to new
parishes etc.
Also over the years organists
and musical directors have come and gone, and we went through a period of
singing more simple pieces or mostly Hymns. It was with the appointment of
Bishop Patrick O'Donoghue and his desire to improve the music in the Cathedral,
that Canon Stephen was appointed. We then saw an increase in the variety and
quality of the music and we found we were learning more ambitious and exciting
pieces, from medieval to modern day, something we have all enjoyed being part
of.
The composition of the choir
also has changed over the years and eventually the number of men who could
commit to singing regularly reduced dramatically, so it was decided 10 years
ago to make the Cathedral choir ladies only with occasionally SATB choir on
special occasions with the use of the diocesan choir.
I still enjoy singing in the
choir and hope to continue to serve the Parish in this music ministry and
hopefully help to enrich the worship. If any ladies are interested
in joining the choir, we would be very happy to welcome new singers. Mary Garner