The Parish Church of St John-at-Hampstead

8th  June 2014
It was a sunny glorious day and it had been a great Sunday Eucharist service with some terrific gusto hymns – “One Church, One Faith, One Lord!” – excellent readings and a sermon from the Vicar on introvert/extrovert Christianity.  Added to that, the atmosphere was buoyed by the news that our irreplaceable and enthusiastic youth worker Liz Brown had been given the opportunity to go for the priesthood – and leave us in August…

Lucinda (Mrs. David Moore) and Margaret (Rodgers, benefactor with her late husband Barney) went on ahead to purchase tickets at Victoria Station, while David Moore (with his hat of authority on) and assorted parents (including yours truly) marshalled his pretty extrovert troops on to the tube and on to the train and by foot to the handsome Sussex church in the area of his youth and the site of his wedding.

A couple of us were exhausted and required refreshments at the Half Moon pub nearby while the choir rehearsed and robed.

St Mary’s Balcombe was wonderfully welcoming and the audience were warm and generous and happy.  A lot of them obviously knew and loved David and they were rewarded with a lovely concert of sweetness, discipline and talent, give or take a few missed bows and shy introductions.

I’m not a person qualified to judge the music as a critic – you should have been there, Suzanne and Michael – but the church anthems by the choir, the solos including Morning Has Broken and One Hand, One Heart (from West Side Story) and the piano and organ pieces too were all sung and played beautifully and movingly.  I did rather weep during the final song on the programme, Rutter’s The Lord bless you and keep you, but then it had been sung by five of the senior choir at our wedding 12 years ago.

And then there was an encore, a sparkling rendition of A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, which seemed so right, so near to D-Day, and so near to where Vera Lynn lives, as one of the audience told me.

Well done, David.  What a marvellous day for the children, their first concert outside Hampstead, for us who proudly accompanied them, and for your Balcombe people. 

Then again, it would have gone down a storm anywhere.

I know ‘cos I was there…