Happy new year

My dear Friends

It has been a very rich period again since the concert. A week past on Monday saw the beginning of the new Jewish year and I was invited to a service at the Guildhall for Beth Shalom, the Reform Jewish group in Cambridge. I stayed for the first two hours and was able to join in the singing of the Avinu Malkaynu, Our Father, Our King, a moving entreaty to grant favour and bless us, hear us and save us. It is especially moving to realise that this is being sung by Jews all over the world at this time.

I sang it again in a different context on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which was celebrated two days ago. I was leading the prayers for the Wesley prayer group, a small group of Methodist Christians who meet every Wednesday for prayer. I quoted from the Rabbis about prayer and repentance, the theme of the day, and joined all the prayers of intercession with a rendering of the last verse of Avinu Malkaynu:

'Make in us charity and righteousness, and save us. Our Father Our King.'

Yom Kippur is a day of fasting, repentance and asking for mercy and forgiveness and this year, with the Jewish community, I decided to keep a little fast.I did not do the whole twenty five hours, but ended my little fast in the Friends' Meeting House. that is the Quakers, over some bread and a bowl of soup. I shared with them about Yom Kippur. Afterwards we had their traditional meeting for worship in silence.

I wish you all a good and sweet year
Shalom from Gila

Concert for Peace and Reconciliation

My dear Friends

I am delighted to tell you that my little Concert for Peace and Reconciliation went very well. It took place last tuesday, on the anniversary of 9/11. The venue was Michaelhouse, a cafe and ancient church right in the heart of Cambridge.

Annabel, the Anglican priest in charge, set the tone when she asked for a short pause to honour the day. Then I told the story of how something was going on at Ground Zero,a few days after 9/11 and when the people drew closer to see what was going on they saw a group of people-dancing for the joy of living.

The music unfolded-I started with an anti-war song by Ed McCurdy called Last night I had the strangest dream: 'I dreamed the world had all agreed to put an end to war.' Psalm 23 in Hebrew followed, dedicated to a sweet American man I had recently met and who had just lost his wife. Then There but for Fortune, written by Phil Ochs but made famous by Joan Baez.'There but for Fortune go you or I.'

The audience (and it was a full house) really started singing when i struck up with 'We shall overcome' , the last verse of which is 'The Truth shall set you free.' Then there was a lyrical break with Are you going to Scarborough Fair, followed by the totally transcendent Blowing in the wind.

Hannah Senesh, a young Hungarian Jewess wrote a beautiful song calleld Eli, Eli, my God about the God of all creation-she perished at the hands of the Nazis but in one of her letters before she died she wrote'The souls of those who have gone before us light up the way for the rest of mankind.'

I finished with a couple of rambling songs by Tom Paxton. The second was Rambling Boy and, after retelling the death of the hero, the song finishes as follows:'If when we die, we go somewhere, you can bet a dollar he's ramblin there!'

Power to your elbow
Love and shalom
Gila