During the summer of 2014, five children from the Sunday School programme at St. Philip’s Church, Whifield Town, were enrolled in the inaugural Diocesan Music Summer Camp held at Christ Church in Vineyard Town.
Like the rest of the campers, the St. Philip’s students performed admirably at the end-of-camp concert and the subsequent 2014 Christmas season performances.
Inspired by the rapid improvement and enthusiasm of the children at the camp, the St. Philip’s Church Committee undertook to begin its own music training programme with a view to:
- Providing another avenue to attract children and adults alike to the Church
- Building on the skills acquired by participants in the summer camp
- Attracting other participants to the music programme
- Enhancing the weekly worship service with the infusion of additional musical instruments
- Providing exposure and opportunities to willing participants in the area of music
A seven-piece trap set, previously donated by a church member, and which was sitting idly in the Church’s storeroom, was put into operation. St. Luke’s Church loaned a six-piece set of under-utilized steel pans for the training sessions; and Mr. Lorenzo Hall, one of the tutors from the Music Summer Camp, was engaged to teach participants the rudiments of playing the trap set and the steel pan.
The Group had its first public performance at the St. Philip’s Patronal Festival Service held on Sunday May 3 at which the Lord Bishop presided. Seven members performed two selections to the delight of the entire congregation.
The programme has received numerous commendations from members of the congregation and the Coordinators are all looking forward to achieving their objective of introducing new instruments at the weekly Service. As one leader puts it, “Bringing the participants to a level of proficiency to regularly perform on various stages would be a crowning achievement of this initiative. We continue to build this programme and, with God’s divine grace and guidance, we are confident that we will meet our goals.”
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