St Mary the Virgin is a large and ancient building with a rich history. The parish church of Shipton almost certainly started life as an Anglo-Saxon minster and the church is first mentioned in documents dating back to 1115. The present church is mainly early 13th century and the tower, spire and door are thought to have been started around 1200. Given the ancient status of this beautiful church, we were really pleased to support the fundraising efforts for a new heating system. Our contact, Rev. Canon Sarah Sharp, is a great organiser and fundraiser – skills that we discovered when Sarah was vicar of St John’s Bodicote. Last Saturday was just as I’d imagined it would be: lots of people came and their ticket included an interval drink. As ever, Sarah our thoughtful host, provided us with refreshments while we setting-up and in the interval. Given that we were ‘competing’ with the new series of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ on TV, we were so pleased that a good-sized audience came and sang beautifully with us throughout.

We have experimented with narrative and visual material in the past and last Saturday, we trialled a new concert format: ‘Roots of Gospel music: A journey in songs, stories and history’ with four short sections of history (accompanied by projected images) read beautifully by Rachel and early photographs of some of the key songwriters in the genre to accompany Donald’s excellent story-telling. Donald, Rachel, Thabo and I were delighted that Adrian could sing and play harmonica with us.

Sarah said that everyone who came along enjoyed our music and that the evening raised £546 towards the new heating system. Thank you Sarah and your fantastic team of helpers for the invite, we’ll look forward to coming back in due course.

Richard

For us, it is a privilege and pleasure to play at the St Mary’s Cropredy festival fringe event which takes place every year on the opening day of Fairport’s Cropredy Convention festival. The church team, led by Verna and Stephen Wass were fantastic as always: welcoming, well organised, keeping all the bands to time and with the best value beer at their bar in the entire village! Our thanks to Verna in particular for the annual invitation to play in Cropredy’s beautiful church. As fundraising is currently needed for repair work, we hope to return to play an evening concert in the Autumn. Meanwhile, our forthcoming bookings include:

Saturday 20 September: St Mary’s, Church Street, Shipton under Wychwood OX7 6BP, 7pm fundraising concert; Sunday 21 September: St Peter’s, Hanwell OX17 1HN, 3pm Pet service (yes, animals love Gospel music!); Friday 10 October: Holy Trinity, Shenington OX15 6NQ, 7pm fundraising concert with the Community Choir of Oxhill, Tysoe and Shennington, Saturday 15 November: St Mary’s, Duns Tew OX25 6JP, 7pm fundraising concert. Please join us and sing along with us at any of these events. Also, if we can help your church with fundraising, please contact us via the ‘Contact Us’ page on our website: GospelBell.com

We always enjoy our annual visits to St Leonard’s in the Grimsbury district, Banbury – not least because this is a dancing church! The St Leonard’s team always prepare a fantastic supper for the interval and we would like to thank the organisers and catering team for their warm welcome, hospitality and lovely food – as always. Sheila James writes: On behalf of St Leonard’s, thank you very much to Gospel Bell for facilitating our celebration event. As always, the people who were there really enjoyed themselves and £300 was raised for church funds.

We should also like to thank Jay for joining us on saxophone and the Vicar of St Leonard’s Kudzayi Harrison Bvekerwa who played percussion alongside Thabo. We are already looking forward to our next visit!

Greatworth Methodist Church (GMC) has a history rooted in the broader Methodist movement, which began with John Wesley in the 18th century. The Methodist chapel in Greatworth was built in 1860 although non-conformist worship on that site dates back to at least 1788. (Greatworth Parish Council – A Brief History).

We were delighted to play at GMC for the first time on Saturday evening 12 July at the invitation of Walter Stageman, who did an excellent job in encouraging church members and the wider village community to attend the event. We’d also like to thank the catering team who provided a wonderful range of food and beverages during the interval.

Walter writes: Thank you for the wonderful performance and the way the good news was transmitted. Ticket sales generated a contribution of £220 to church funds. We will look forward to a return visit!

There has been a church on the site of St Martin’s, Bladon since the 11th century. By 1800 the old medieval church was in a state of decay and permission was granted for the church to be demolished. The 4th Duke of Marlborough paid for building materials for the new church, which was opened in 1804. In this historic venue we facilitated our multimedia ‘Origins of Gospel Music’ service. Our musical story begins in 1748 when John Newton, the author of ‘Amazing Grace’ is shipwrecked. We trace his influence and those who followed him as far as the pioneering music of American Gospel singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe in the 1930s and 1940s.

We should like to thank the Reverend Sarah Bourne, Rector of Woodstock and Bladon for the invitation to play, Gillian, Church Warden at Bladon for looking after us and all who attended the event. Sarah comments: We are so grateful to you for bringing Gospel Bell to St Martin’s yesterday afternoon. Everyone was hugely appreciative of your music and we learnt a great deal about the origins of Gospel Music. We would be delighted to welcome you back on another occasion when the weather is warmer and there are more opportunities to engage with the village. Our sincere thanks to the band.

St John the Baptist, Hornton was originally built in the late 12^th century and now has a largely 14th exterior, resulting from later rebuilding and alterations. Inside, this beautiful church is well known for its medieval wall paintings. This was the settings for a morning service based on our ‘Origins of Gospel music’ multimedia format that among other elements, traces the life of John Newton, author of ‘Amazing Grace’. Thanks to the efforts of Bob Langton, Andrew Overton, Ian and Isabelle Harris, Andrew Barnes and team, more than double the number of people who normally attend services came along to participate in the service and sing along with us. We would like to thank the organising team for their warm welcome and Revd Alicia Baker for inviting us to facilitate the service. We so enjoyed our visit!

As well as Gospel, we love playing Ceilidh events – it’s a privilege to see people dancing! We played at The Big Green Ceilidh fundraiser in Preston on Stour Warwickshire, on Saturday 9th November Warwickshire and at our annual Ceilidh in Bloxham, Oxfordshire on Sunday 10 November. Great fun was had by all!

Our thanks to Revd Neil Roberts, the refreshments and donations team and all who came along to sing with us at this lovely community venue. Neil writes: We had a great evening, we really appreciate you coming out to play for us.  Blessings to you all in this ministry, it’s fab! Hopefully we’ll see you again some point soon.

As Gospel Bell play regularly in churches and help with fund-raising events, we have developed a church service format (complete with readings, a talk and prayers) that traces the roots of Gospel music and the story behind the hymn ‘Amazing Grace’. Our thanks to the United Reformed Church Broadway, for hosting us on Sunday 8 September. It was the first time we’ve used this multi-media format and it went well! If other churches would like to host our Origins of Gospel Music service, please contact me via the Contact Us page.

The Church of St Mary the Virgin, Cropredy has a long and interesting history. The South Aisle dates from as early as 1050. The Sanctuary in its present form dates from the 14th century. The lower stage of the tower dates from 15th century and the belfry was added about 80 years later. The clock, with its 14ft long wooden pendulum dates from 1831. The tower has 8 bells, six of which were installed in the 17th century and the last two, Fairport and Villager were added as recently as 2007. These bells were named to reflect the good relationship between the church and local Fairport Convention annual festival.

As always, it was a great privilege to open the Cropredy Fringe at St Mary’s at 12 noon. We have noticed over the years, how attendance is boosted either by blisteringly hot weather or, sadly for festival attendees today, by rain! This wonderful lunch time concert is beautifully organised by Church Warden, Verna Wass and we should like to thank Verna, Stephen, their refreshments team and the Revd Canon Sarah Fenby, Vicar of Shires Edge Benefice for the opportunity to play at this special event. The programme truly has something for everyone and is greatly appreciated by all who wander in to join us. Long may it continue!