ANGLICAN CHOIRS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5433, 7 June 1929, Page 2

ANGLICAN CHOIRS.

FESTIVAL HELD AT THAMES. PAEROA PARTICIPATES. About 26 members of St. Paul’s choir, Paeroa, travelled to Thames on Monday to take part in the Festival of Choirs which for a number of years past has been arranged by the choir of St. George’s Church, Thames. Sixteen from the Cathedral choir of Hamilton and eight from St. John’s, Waihi, also took part, so that with St. George’s choristers there was a choir of between 70 and 80 voices. On arrival at Thames the visitors ■were given a hearty welcome and entertained to a sumptuous luncheon in the St. George’s Hall, after which they spent some hours of the afternoon in visiting places of interest in and about the town. At 4.30 p.m. all assembled in the church, where a rehearsal took place of the festival music, and, after tea in the hall, the service in the church was held. Full festal evensong was sung with processional and retrocessional hymns, the sermon being preached by the vicar of Hauraki Plains. After the Benediction a Te Deum was sung before the Altar. The special festival music included the gloria from Mozart’s 12th Mass and the anthem “Lift up your heads,” followed after the Evensong by the recitative and arias “Lord God of Abraham,,’ “It is enough,” from Elijah, sung by Mr G. Wheeler, of the . Cathedral choir, and Mr Briggs, of Thames, respectively ; the aria from “The Messiah,” “Come unto Me ye that labour,” sung by Miss Kirby, of the Cathedral choir; and Knapp’s beautiful solo, “Open the gates of the Temple,” by Mr Harold Hill, a visiting member of St. Paul’s choir. After the service a social hour was * spent in the hall, where the young people enjoyed a few dances, after which a dainty supper brought a most pleasant and sociable reunion of the members of the various choirs to an , end. The visitors cannot speak tod warmly of the wonderful hospitality and kindness extended to them by the choirmaster, Mr Arthur Williams, his wife, and the members of St. George’s choir.