On Sunday 27th August 2017, Gospel Bell provided music and singing in support of the morning Eucharist service the Parish Church of St Peter & St Paul, Deddington. Vicar Annie Goldthorp incorporated reflection and discussion about the personhood of Jesus (Matthew 16: 13-20) to encourage re-examination of the mission of Jesus. Pictured below: front row left to right: David, Susie, Sean, Donald; back row left to right: Toni, Paula, Annie and Judy.
St Leonard’s is one of a group of five Church of England parishes within Banbury, situated in the Grimsbury area of the town. The style of worship is traditional with periodic more informal music and GB played at the Eucharist service at 10am on Sunday 30th July 2017. We played prior to, during and after the service and members of the congregation sang with us and some even joined us on percussion when we played during refreshments. Vicar Sue Burchell said: ‘Thank you for providing some brilliant music … I enjoyed it very much.’
‘Thy Kingdom Come’ is a global prayer movement, which invites Christians around the world to pray between Ascension and Pentecost. What started out as an invitation from the Archbishops’ of Canterbury and York in 2016 to the Church of England has grown into an international and ecumenical call to prayer. On Saturday 3rd June 2017, GB played at the 5pm service for ‘Thy Kingdom Come’, St Mary’s Adderbury.
On Saturday 3rd June 2017 at 3pm, GB played at the annual Amnesty (Banbury) garden party in Bloxham. Reporting on a successful event, the Banbury group posted: ‘…yesterday’s Garden Party was blessed with sunshine and went off very successfully, with the atmosphere greatly assisted by high energy, acoustic music from Gospel Bell. Many thanks to them for entertaining us and contributing to a great afternoon … The total raised for Amnesty funds was £475.45 which compares favourably with other years.’
Our first afternoon tea engagement took place on Sunday 21st May 2017 when GB played at the Parish Church of St Peter & St Paul, Deddington from 3-5pm. Fortified by excellent refreshments, most people stayed throughout the afternoon and joined us in singing the choruses. Here is an extract from a ‘thank you’ letter published in the Deddington News, July 2017:
‘A huge thank you to everyone who donated wonderful homemade cakes, and supplied refreshments for the teas in Church in May … We very much appreciated the support from the village and the Gospel Bell Band in helping us to raise £400.’
On Sunday 21st May 2017, GB played at the Banbury Friendship Festival – a day-long event promoting friendship across Banbury. The Festival began with an ‘Almost dawn chorus walk’ at 7:30am and continued throughout the day with support from a number of local organizations including: the Cornhill Centre, Your Letterbox, The Banbury Museum, The Good Neighbour Fund, Banbury Quakers and the Banbury Interfaith Network. Among other activities, the event featured live music at the bandstand in the centre of Banbury and our slot from 1.3pm until 2pm was blessed with sunshine and a good crowd of people. In the photo below Melodeon player John is pictured in the foreground with son-in-law Troy (Cajon) and John’s grandson (shaker).
