No Clangers Dropped by Bell-ringers!

Old High          Mary Angus

We have had a good year of music thanks to Rena and her choice of Anthems for us to learn and to sing.

The Christmas Eve service was enjoyed by all and now we are preparing for the Easter Services. For the Palm Sunday Service we will be joined by choir members from Crown, Ness Bank, St Joseph’s and St Ninian’s Nairn

The choir enjoys a happy fellowship and contribute a suitable anthem to the Sunday Services.

Finally we record our thanks to Rena for her enthusiasm and encouragement at our Thursday practises and for the amount of work she does for us.

St Stephen’s        Pam McCulloch

The organists rota continues with Andrew Stevenson , Ron Stevenson and myself taking it in turns to play for Sunday services. The rota is ably managed by Joan Darcy with Ron Stevenson playing at most weddings and funerals. It has hoped to include Douglas Anderson in the near future. Douglas will at first assist the ‘regular’ organists and in time may well manage to take on the occasional service.

The choir continues to be the main focus to the music making in St Stephens. We rehearse each Thursday during school terms and any new members will be made particularly welcome. We have managed to find a couple of new members in recent weeks’ which is very encouraging. The rehearsals are spent mainly preparing for Sunday services. In September we took part in a service at the bandstand in Bellfield Park along with the Inverness and District Male Voice Gospel Choir.

The choir held two social events in the year; the barbeque at Ken and Val Cantlay’s was a great way to round off the choir season last June and our annual dinner was another success at the Corriegarth Hotel at the beginning of February.

On Thursday 24th April we are again combining the choirs of St Stephens with the staff/senior pupil choir, and the S1 girls choir of Inverness Royal Academy to present an evening of music in aid of SNAP. We have a very varied programme of religious and secular vocal music awaiting you and would be grateful for your support. Tickets are available from choir members and at the Church door during April.

The choir is in the final stages of planning a weekend away to Arran. We are heading for the ferry on Friday 23rd May. We are preparing for a concert on the Saturday evening followed by assisting with the singing at a Church service on the Sunday morning. The main purpose of the visit is to help and encourage the use of the many wonderful new melodies in CH4.

Thank you to all who have assisted in any way to compliment the music making in St Stephen’s.