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St. Peter's Touring Choir Ferries through the Diocese of Argyll and the Isles
by Donna Beecher, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Lewes On Tuesday, June 19, 2007, thirty-six choristers, musicians, and friends returned to Delaware from the Scottish Hebrides, having sung ten concerts and two church services in fourteen days. George (and Libby) Bayley, Director of Music at St. Peter’s Church in Lewes, organized the trip at the invitation of Bishop Martin Shaw of our companion diocese of Argyll and the Isles. Eleven singers from St. Peter’s choir were joined by ten additional singers from the Diocese of Delaware (Immanuel Highlands, Wilmington) and beyond to form the St. Peter’s Touring Choir. Stephanie Liem, Margaret Love, and Nancy Loux accompanied the choir and performed instrumental selections on keyboard, piano, organ, Celtic harp, and flute. In addition to Stephanie, a young organist from Philadelphia, the choir included several young people, including Monica Welch who, along with Kelly Mallon and Charles Warrick, sang solo segments. Monica graduated from high school the day before departure on her first airplane on her first trip outside the U.S. She no sooner got back than she flew off again with St. Peter’s Youth for another mission trip to Puerto Rico! The concert programme included mostly American compositions and arrangements, including a recently commissioned anthem by Christopher Putnam entitled My Spirit Longeth for Thee. Fr. Jeffrey Ross preached at St. Columba’s Church on Skye and celebrated and preached at the Cathedral of the Isles on Cumbrae, St. Peter’s companion church in the diocese. He also led daily Morning Prayer and Compline and developed a meditation guide for use on Iona. The Diocese of Argyll and the Isles covers dozens of small islands off the western coast of the Scottish Highlands. Ferries provide the link between islands and the Scottish mainland. Not unlike many of our own parishes, the Scottish Episcopal churches on these islands are very small and in need of funds for maintenance and repair. St. Peter’s Church of Stornoway on the island of Lewis, for example, is raising funds to construct a small addition to include a small meeting room, a kitchen, and two toilets, so worshippers do not need to use the facilities in a neighboring house. Our tour group made a generous cash donation toward the project. The clergy and parishioners of the diocese were very generous and warm-hearted. They provided post-concert teas, luncheons, dinners and even three nights of complimentary home-stays, with full Scottish breakfasts, in Lochgilphead and on the Isle of Arran. The Rev. Roy Ferguson Flatt, Rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Lochgilphead, remembering an earlier visit to Delaware, sported a shirt from St. Paul’s in Georgetown, DE, and trousers bought with a seniors’ discount from the Rehoboth Outlet Stores! We learned that many parishioners must travel over thirty miles on one-lane roads, littered with sheep, to attend worship services on the other side of their island. The Scottish Episcopal Church traces its roots to St. Columba, an Irish missionary who founded the first Christian church in Scotland on the tiny island of Iona off the somewhat larger island of Mull. George composed original music to a hymn written by St. Columba in the 6th century and the choir introduced it in St. Columba’s Church in Portree, Skye on St. Columba’s Day! St. Columba’s children came into the sanctuary not only to join in communion, but also to explain to the congregation what they had learned in Sunday School – that day their lesson was the importance of singing praises to God! The Scottish Episcopal Church ministers to people in the shadow of the much larger Church of Scotland (Presbyterian). Its uniquely Scottish liturgy is similar to the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. Scotland is proud of its nearly independent status within Great Britain and the United Kingdom—and not surprisingly the Church of England. The choir sang in three relatively large venues: the Iona Abbey, the Whiting Bay Church on the Isle of Arran and the Cathedral of the Isles. Iona Abbey, like other monasteries across Britain, was destroyed during the Reformation period. The abbey was beautifully restored in the last century with funds left for this purpose by the Duke of Argyll on the condition that it shall be used for ecumenical worship. The Iona Community develops liturgies for Christian churches around the world. Visitors fill the Abbey for daily services, some specifically dedicated to healing, as well as justice and peace. All of the churches on Arran (Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic) voted to sponsor jointly our concert, dinner, and home-stays. The Church of Scotland at Whiting Bay, having the largest sanctuary, opened its doors to a near-capacity audience. This example of interdenominational spirit brought to mind the work made possible by the Lewes and Rehoboth Association of Churches back home. The Cathedral of the Isles is a very special place. The smallest cathedral in Europe, it is nevertheless, impressive and acoustically perfect. The newly renovated College provided very comfortable lodgings. Alastair Chisholm, organist, put the choir through its paces for the Sunday Eucharist and welcomed a large turnout for the final afternoon concert. Alastair tirelessly raises funds to support the Cathedral. Throughout the Hebrides, God’s awesome majesty and creation are undeniable and stand in stark contrast to the monuments commemorating the awful human massacres at Glen Coe and Culloden. Singing two musical settings of Psalm 23 seemed perfectly natural as sheep grazed all around in green pastures. But most importantly, the pairing of the two dioceses became very real and very personal. We pray for each other every Sunday, but now we see the faces of new friends and pray for them by name; Martin, Bobby, Stanley, Lizbeth Dunne, Claire, Elspeth, Aubrey and Hilda, Roy and Andrina, John, Alastair, Helen Hamilton, and many more too numerous to name. The anthem Draw Us in the Spirit’s Tether by Harold Friedell seemed to sum up our prayer “to knit our friendship up.” When the trip ended, everyone brought back luggage jammed with souvenirs, digital camera cards full of photos, minds overcrowded with memories, and spirits overflowing with love for God and for the people of our companion diocese. Thank God for the blessings of bringing the gift of sacred music to these remote congregations. Thank God for the gift we are, and can be, to each other. |
