Monday, April 29, 2013

Singing with Handbells!

It's that time of year again - Musicfest!

Each spring, the handbell choirs of St. John's York Mills put on a huge, family-friendly concert that literally incorporates every musician in the church. Handbells, choir, soloists, organ, and the worship band share their talents with a packed house.

This year's theme, "From Vinyl to Viral," celebrates the different ways we've listened to recorded music over the years.

Gerald and I will be leading the band and adding our voices to a few of the handbell pieces. We joined the handbell rehearsal tonight to run our songs. I'll be posting lots of photos on our Facebook page over the next week of rehearsals.

Here's a preview....

Gerald working out the opening number - Consider Yourself! 

Working with handbell director, Carolyn Martin, 
on the beautiful ballad, Try to Remember.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

BIG NEWS!!!!!!

Gerald has made the shortlist of finalists for The Word Awards! He has 2, yes, TWO, songs that have made the shortlist in the Song Lyric category.

"You Are..." , a love song to God, was recorded as part of our Infinitely More CD.

"If They Knew It Was Me" has been performed at several of our live performances, and challenges us to imagine Jesus walking in our midst.

The Word Awards are designed to raise the profile of Canadian writers who are Christian, and to encourage them in the pursuit of excellence. A black-tie awards gala has been held since 2006 to increase public recognition, honour the winners, and celebrate Canadian writing. The awards currently consist of 19 book categories and 15 other categories for articles, columns, poems, song lyrics, and blog posts.

A full list of finalists can be seen at www.TheWordGuild.com

We'll be attending the gala and taking lots of photos - stay tuned!

Monday, April 01, 2013

How We Spent Easter...

Yesterday was a whirlwind. Not the We're-not-in-Kansas-anymore type, but the kind that sweeps you into a busy day and leaves you on the other side, a little dizzy, a little tired, and surprisingly complete.

I could fill pages describing the day, so let me sum it all up in a few highlights:

- Morning worship with a packed house, awesome worship band, and full choir.

- We sang "Resurrection Hymn (See What a Morning)" as a Communion song, complete with accordion!

- I met a couple visiting from England, and I had sung at their wedding 15 years ago!

- Mom and Dad joined us for the morning service! So great to have them there.

- Ended morning worship with a roof-shattering rendition of "To God Be The Glory" with voices, band, tambourine, and pipe organ.

- Had a little rest between services, with enough time to make up a platter of Easter treats for the band.

- Beautiful Gathering service with a great crowd, including enough children for a children's focus.

- A powerful message by Drew and a moving, intimate Communion led by Anne.

- We enjoyed a late Easter dinner with friends, in a comfortable home with an abundance of food.

Our Gathering Worship Band, tech team, and clergy.

But the real highlight, the best moment of the day for us, was sharing our new song, 
"There's a Light at the End of the Tomb" at both services. 
We'd been working on it for weeks, and as I've shared already, 
the church used our song title as the cornerstone of their Easter advertising.

Our song title on the cover of the Easter bulletins. 

We just used guitar for the accompaniment, but we pulled Patrick and Derwyn into the mix to give us a full vocal quartet on the choruses. It felt so awesome to sing it, and the reaction was overwhelmingly positive.

We recorded everything, so once we have a bit of Easter recovery time, we'll take a listen and see if we can share any of it with you.

In the meantime, please feel free to visit our FACEBOOK page 
to see more photos of our Easter experience!