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Before Europe, a concert at home

Melodious Methodists will perform tonight before a tour of service and learning.

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE
Published May 21, 2006

This evening, choir members will give a concert that will preview pieces they will sing during the overseas tour.

The trip wraps up a three-year program that set three specific goals for the group, said Jeremy Herrington, director of music ministries at the Largo church. Those goals were recruitment of new members; discipleship and training; and service to the church, community and the world.

Recent accomplishments include a CD of sacred music, Songs from the Heart. In their service to the community, choir members have led a Sunday morning worship service at MacDill Air Force Base and a vespers service at Freedom Square, a retirement community in Seminole.

The tour of England and Germany will help fulfill the group's mission to be of service in the wider world, Herrington said.

It is "an opportunity to be in mission for families, especially to military families overseas,'' he said. "To sing for them is a great boost for them.''

Choir members also view the trip as an opportunity to learn more about their denomination - founded in England by John Wesley - and about other Christian traditions, Herrington said. They will lead worship at the historic Wesley's Chapel in London and meet with a Wesleyan historian in Oxford. In Germany, they will participate in a worship service with nuns at the St. Hildegard of Bingen Abbey.

"It's an opportunity for the choir to experience Christianity from a different point of view,'' Herrington said. The tour, he added, will benefit the group in other ways.

"When you work toward common goals, you really grow,'' he said.

Karen Silvernail and her husband, Mike, have been members of the church choir since 1977.

"It's a great way to worship the Lord through music and it's wonderful fellowship with the other choir members,'' she said.

Silvernail is one of 58 singers and 11 family members who will leave for Europe on Thursday. She is looking forward to it.

"We can make a difference,'' she said, mentioning particularly the choir's appearances at the military bases. The itinerary will include Mildenhall Royal Air Force Station in England, and Baumholder Army Garrison and Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.

The singers' repertoire includes Cantate Domino, the Mansions of the Lord and a gospel rendition of Blessed Assurance.

If you go

Anona Sanctuary Choir Spring Concert, 7 p.m. today at Anona United Methodist Church, 13233 Indian Rocks Road, Largo. Choir members will perform selections from their concert tour and their recently released CD, Songs from the Heart. An offering will be taken.

[Last modified May 21, 2006, 09:11:42]