The organist librarian

Saturday took Liz to station as circle line not running - her session was on the Bible. I went to London Bridge to go to Southwark cathedral for the day "Singing the Bible" marking the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. Lovely to see Bernadette Farrell again and her workshop was excellent despite a certain man interrupting. (Later I saw him at the back of Westminster cathedral!) Canon Andrew Dunn the acting Dean gave a lovely welcoming prayer and we sang "Angel voices". Bernadette gave us the music for lots of good ideas. Nice to see Andrew Maries again but he did not give us the scores - good to be reminded of some fine songs by Christopher Walker and Bernadette and Marty Haugen. At lunch I helped on the RSCM book stall but I find Frances Novillo rather bossy! The afternoon workshop was a disaster! The leader a priest from Brixton said she can't sing but the 2 people she had asked lectured us on the community choirs they had formed. A lady said she was ...

The reading group had a great discussion about "Native son" by Richard Wright. I'm surprised I had not come across this amazing book before. It certainly paints a bleak picture of racist America in the 1940s and has a powerful message for today. It was a shame Celine was not there to give a black perspective and later in the day when I told Pat Kahn about Doris I asked her about her American perspective on the book. Vespers and Mass for Christ the King with smoke. Fr Alexander sings really well and has a natural authority - so good to have a young priest. The choir from Limerick did not impress alas! We did sing "How shall we sing that majesty" which Fr Alexander wrote about in the newsletter. He would have preferred "Coe Fen" to "Kingsfold". Started with "Hail redeemer King divine". To swing party in the hall for the friends. Good to see Mark, Connie, Hannah, Andrew there. Anna sang beautifully - she sings at Harrods. The Irish ban...