Anne Brown reflected on the Promise of Christmas 2018
The Promise of Christmas 2018 was a very special one for me as I stepped down from my my role as MD of The Promise of Christmas Youth Choir after 17 years; in other words, from when we began.
Before that the Cambrats has been in existence for 7 years, and my work with those “all year rounders” was done, too. Emily, who is succeeding me had arranged an amazing and imaginative farewell, with each child marching out from the stage to the sounds of the choir singing a re-vamped version of one of the earlier songs, and placing a thank you card in the lovely miniature toy box I’d been given for that purpose.
I was surprised to see some rather older children come past me too, some ex members who had been roped in, and finally Kelvin Thomas, “Mr Cambrensis” himself (our founder and MD for nearly 30 years) brought up the rear. It has been a privilege and a blessing along with a lot of hard work leading these choirs and we can all look forward to their future in the capable hands of Emily Witts and Lorraine Vernon.
It was an amazing day of music and worship from the first note at 3pm to the final one at 9.45. Our guest artist in the evening, Katy Treharne thrilled the audience as much as the children did in the afternoon and the final song, “We are The Reason,” bringing the Christmas and Easter messages together, brought the day to a rousing conclusion. Well, almost – the traditional singing of Hark the Herald, with brass fanfare and the full works, always raises the roof and sends people off into Advent week full of hope and rejoicing.
