The ramblings of a distracted organist.....

No-one saw my youngest son messing about before the service. Friends, I'm ashamed to say I threatened him with a quick drive to South Church if he didn't calm down. He calmed down.

Before the service, I played the Andante from Mozart's flute concerto, then Marche Romaine by Gounod. During the Offering, I played Ave Maria d'Arcadelt, by Franz Liszt. The outgoing voluntary was Coronation March, by Meyerbeer.

Not a good day for the organist, I'm afraid. I forgot to cancel the "pull out all the stops" registration after the last verse of the hymn before the sermon. So what happened? The gentle, meditative offering voluntary came out as a real belter. Sorry, everyone! Then I realised, too late, that I had decided to transpose the last hymn down a tone to make it easier for you all. The time lag was the time it took me to find the correctly transposed version in the hymn book.

Finally, you just try playing a loud, triumphant closing voluntary and taking a sticky chocolate biscuit off your sticky-fingered six-year old at the same time. He meant it as a peace-offering, but his timing was lousy! At least I kept going...

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Pause for thought ...

Don't forget to take a look at the Traidcraft website - if we all tried to use fair trading products wherever possible, what a difference it could make.

Food for thought - have you heard of Back to Church Sunday? It's an initiative by the Church of England. In Manchester, they're tempting people back to church with free-trade chocolate. Yumm! "The Church of England is launching a pilot scheme to attract people back to church - by offering a bar of fair trade chocolate to every worshipper." Read about it on the BBC news website!

Nebuchadnezzar - you can find out more about the subject of Alan's sermon, at ChristianAnswers.net. Or, for the kids, visit GardenOfPraise.com to see the story of the fiery furnace retold for children: it's called Three Brave Boys.

Sunday 19th October - and it was Harvest at Killermont Parish Church, Bearsden. (Click on the link to visit Harvest WebQuest). It was also the baptism of baby Mark.

Before the service, I played Chanson de matin (Elgar); To a to a wild rose (Macdowell - no Scottish connection!) and the ever-popular "September". Finally I played Tuba Tune (Lang) as the choir and minister came in.

During the offering, I looked at the pouring rain outside, as I played Summertime (Gershwin) - actually a lullaby to a baby, urging him to sleep. Prophetic words? Mark had screamed and yelled at the start of the service, but came back in his Dad's arms, blissfully asleep.

After the service, I played Nun danket, a voluntary based on "Now thank we all our God", by Karg Elert.

POINTS TO CONSIDER:-

• Fair trading - consider buying as much produce as you can through Traidcraft.
• Get involved in the Vote for Trade Justice campaign. Take part in a massive global ballot calling on world leaders to make trade fair.

Highlighting a forthcoming concert:

We were told this morning about the Soweto Gospel Choir's imminent visit to Glasgow. It's on Thursday 7th October at the Royal Concert Hall. (You can see the whole itinerary by clicking this link to the Soweto Gospel Choir website.)

Hard to see how the Killermont Choir could get to hear this fabulous group without foregoing their weekly practice, but hey! we could always give it a thought .....

Here's a quick summary of recent organ music at Killermont, Bearsden:

29 August 2004 : Pastoral dance on "Simple gifts", by A. Clarke; Prelude in blue, by Blinko; Soul song, by A. Fletcher. On the way out, the kids were treated to Jurassic Park, by Williams, then I played "Rejoice in the Lord", by Purcell - just to redress the balance!

5 September 2004: Agnus Dei, by Faure; Pavane, by Drayton; Solemn Procession, by Lloyd Webber - father of Andrew and Julian. Lascia ch'io pianga, by Handel (during the offering), and a Fanfare by Eldridge at the end of the service.

12th September 2004 (Communion Sunday) - 1st service: Finlandia, by Sibelius; Solemn Melody, by Walford Davies; Panis angelicus, by Franck. During Communion I played Barber's Adagio, and Nun danket (Bach, arranged by Rawsthorne) played you out.
2nd service: Jupiter, from the Planets, by Holst; during Communion you heard Franck's Andantino in E major and Prelude in B minor; at the end of the service I played Benedictus, by John Marsh.

Please remember my father in your prayers - he's in the Norwich BUPA hospital, having had a complex hernia operation. I played the Franck pieces because Franck is one of my francophile Dad's favourite composers.

And tomorrow is Harvest. Now, what shall I play ....?