Election Hustings. The candidates from the three main parties came to the Parish Church under the expert chairmanship of the Vicar. Each candidates were given the opportunity to state their case followed by questions collected in advance from the audience. This was a genuinely secular, community event well attended by voters. A report was sent to Friends who enjoyed it if they were floating voters and criticed if they were party loyalists. The fact that all three parties were unhappy was proof of its neutrality.
Monday April 19: Philip Heath: Church and Chapel. This illustrated talk was a new one for Philip and was well researched as ever. Also, as ever, he had twice the material for the time available, so it had thequality of pre-exam outpouring of facts by the professor. Good stuff and like good students, we learnt a lot. There could be a tendency to take Philip's expertise for granted as he is self-effacing about his knowledge, but we don't!
Monday June 21 - 7.30 pm: Parish Church: An Ecological Exploration; lead by Graham Truscott: Transition Melbourne – the Peak Oil and Climate Change opportunity for South Derbyshire.
Some of the Friends events have looked to the past. This one looks to the future of Melbourne and at some of the critical global issues that will play out locally within the next few years and then for decades to come.
Graham Truscott, Melbourne resident for more than 20 years, former Global Head of Brand with Rolls-Royce plc, Global Communications and Investor Relations Director with IMI plc, and also previously on the editorial staff of National Geographic Magazine, is a Lead Practitioner with the worldwide Transition Network and a founder member of Transition Derby. Using a variety of techniques, including slide presentation and audience dialogue, he will introduce the issues and discuss the challenges as well as the opportunities of the low-carbon, energy-constrained near future that Melbourne can expect.
Friday August 6: Visit to Highgrove: 9.30 am from Church Square. The Friends put themselves on the list a couple of years ago and our number has come up. Only 25 tickets were made available, the Friends were informed, a ballot was held and the lucky few are known. There is a back-up list in the event of a drop out. It will be a very special trip and a report will be posted.
Friday September 24 - 7.30 pm: Parish Church: Musica Donum Dei and ‘Scandal in the Ccathedral Close -the Singer and the Swan’ Once again the Friends are giving full support to the Melbourne Festival. Musica Donum Dei gave a stunning performance of Shakespeare and Elizabethan music last year. This year, a scandal between the celebrated poetess Anna Seward, unmarried daughter of a cathedral canon, and John Saville, a respected vicar-choral and nationally famous singer, which rocked Lichfield in the 18th century. The story is told in music of the period by composers such as Handel, Philip Hayes and Thomas Arne, with readings from letters, newspapers and journals.
Monday September 27 - 7.30 pm: Parish Church: Annual General meeting followed by Maxwell Craven. Maxwell Craven gave a talk on John Whitehurst, the Derby clockmaker, scientist and founder member of the Lunar Society. Said like that it sounds as dry as dust, but Maxwell Craven isn't. He has an enormous store of information and anecdotes concerning the history of people and places starting in Derby and ranging across Europe and into Russia. A very entertaining evening and one we will repeat.
Saturday October 16 - 7.30 pm: Parish Church: The Kinder Children's Choir of the High Peak. The Kinder Children’s Choirs have been one of the major success stories of the cultural life of the High Peak since their formation 15 years ago by their inspirational Founder Director Joyce Ellis. The choirs quickly gained a national and international profile with successes in major competitions and festivals, major concert engagements, appearances on TV and radio and in European tours.
The choirs are named after Kinder Scout and involve more than 100 choristers between the ages of 7 and 18 in a group of five choirs. Joyce Ellis was inspired to form the choirs, after a career as an opera and concert singer, with the specific aim of providing vocal and choral training for children with the excitement of high-level performance with professional attitudes and approach. Children are not precluded for reasons of cost and there are no voice tests or auditions in gaining entry to the Choirs’ training programme.
Their programmes range from Handel to Amy Whitehouse and if a choir in a church can get the Lord Lieutenant dancing in the aisle, as happened in Melbourne last year, it has to be good. So put September 24th into your diary.
Thursday November 18 - 7.30 pm: Parish Church: Mark Todd talking about his time as an MP. Mark Todd was a very good MP and gave a thoughtful talk on the changing role of an MP answering searching questions openly and honestly. The only problem, which had nothing to do with him, was that the church was cold in late Autumn. We can't make a Norman church warm in winter, so we will not put events on in the church after mid-October.
