Music

I've enjoyed my singing today, in church and at the weekly practice of Halfway House Male Voice Choir. I'm proud and grateful to belong to this choir - I guess I've sung with them for something in the teens of years now - because it's fun, because we've helped raise a lot of money for many good causes, and because these guys have done a lot, probably more than most of them might guess, to keep me sane over the past couple or three years. And because music, the gift of song, is such an amazing and precious thing.

Plygain is a Welsh tradition of Christmas song that still resonates in these parts. I don't have the language, but happily one local chapel (Arddleen Tabernacle) has an English plygain each year, and I went along there last Friday. Parties from different places simply get up and sing, always unaccompanied, and usually without any introduction - though I broke with tradition to say a few words of introduction to one of my pieces. As always, it was wonderful to be there. For me, faith is better expressed through music than in any other way: music conveys feelings, emotions, lifts spirits, speaks the truth long after you've run out of words. And it was good to see so many different people, old and young, singing in different styles the same amazing subject - the God who does not leave us to languish but comes to us to share our lot, born a helpless child, offering us the gift of love.

Theologians can spend forever debating these things, and liturgists may compete to find the right words to express it all - and however long they take, however in-depth their analysis, there'll always (for me) be a point where they fall short and music has to take over. So, just one simple thought to close today, heartfelt and prayerful: thank you, Lord, for the precious gift of song, and for those with whom I share it. Amen.