Last Friday, our Bella Voce Chapel Choir travelled to Goulburn to participate in the Anglican Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn Synod Eucharist. Held in the beautiful Cathedral Church of St Saviour, our students joined the St Saviour’s Cathedral Choir, Cathedral staff, students of St Mark’s Theological College, members of religious orders, Clergy of the Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn, Deacons, Priests, Area Deans, Canons both Lay and Clerical, Archdeacons, Assistant Bishops, Vergers, Deans, Deacons and Bishops, in what was a resplendent, if sombre procession.
A Synod Eucharist is a very special event in the Anglican Church calendar. However, this one was especially poignant with the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the head of the Anglican Church, announced some 12 hours earlier. The ceremony was incredibly moving, and we were delighted to be there to witness our immediate past Chair of the Board, Mrs Belinda Moss, installed as a Lay Canon, and our own Father Chris deliver the reading. How wonderful to see our students stand a little taller with pride at those moments!
It was also incredibly beautiful.
The young voices of our choristers, blending with the older, trained and untrained, pure and some perhaps less so, the confident, the hesitant, the "considered" and the "enthusiastic", it felt like all who were present gave that little bit more of themselves to the music and spirit of the service last Friday night. I have no doubt we were all reflecting on our Queen — her life, her legacy and her service. And listening to all of those voices raised in glorious song, I couldn’t help but consider how our vocal diversity found single expression through our music. And that beyond a doubt, our experience was finding expression in hundreds of different ways, all around the world.
We’ve all struggled at times with the concept of finding a gift for the person who has everything, and I think this is also true when we think of the Queen. What could we possibly have to offer her? Our thanks, our loyalty, our service? And then it hit me. It was something more, and something perhaps a little more profound. United in our imperfections, all who were assembled there, in congregation, choir or clergy, we were offering her, through song, our hearts. May she rest in peace.
Ms Ellena Papas
Executive Director (Operations)