May 27th

For those of you who know me well, you know that I love to sing. I love to sing with the Tyndale singers, in Musical Theatre and I am a member of the Clifton College school choir.

Singing in a choir creates the feeling of teamwork, companionship, achievement and general “wellbeing”. Something much bigger than any one individual can achieve. It was therefore “unnerving” sat in my home office, alone, recording myself to a backing track that had been emailed to me by the choir master. The aim was to create a “virtual” anthem that could be shared and enjoyed by us and the wider community during lockdown – individual voices “becoming one”.

Singing alone, isolated, felt wrong – it was unnerving, a little scary and very odd; not too dissimilar to how many of us are feeling at the moment, isolated and cut off from each other at Tyndale. We have (I would guess) all at times over the past 10 weeks felt that we have been marooned on an island, an island of individuals trying to get on and survive, longing for “the better days” to return when we can all reunite and “become one”. These days will return and we will all be together again as a Church family, but in the meantime take heart from Isaiah 41: 10; “Do Not Fear, For I Am With You; Do Not Be Dismayed, For I Am Your God. I Will Strengthen You And Help You”.

As a footnote, for those of you who are interested, here’s the “Virtual anthem” that was created:

Graham Lewis