Marathon Man!

From 4 pm on Sunday 23rd August to 4 pm on Monday 24th August 2009, Fr Neil Kelley made music at St Mary's to raise funds for our two churches.




The organ took pride of place in the schedules, with regular spells on the piano, and a rehearsal (with Fr Greg Cuff on the 'cello and Melanie Hill on the violin) of the following week's Saturday concert at St Faith's thrown in for good measure. Music from the classical, romantic amd modern repertoires was interspersed with request numbers asked for (and paid for, of course!) by those present. Towards the end of the 24 hours there was a bout of hymn singing, with favourite hymns requested by the audience. In the final minutes, we sang along to 'Land of Hope and Glory', following which the gallant soloist was cheered to the rafters and went home for some much-needed sleep!

Refreshments were served throughout, and there were always people present to support the vicar throughout the watches of the night.

Liz Mooney's pictures capture some of the highlights of this memorable 24 hours.

Money is still coming in, and the total currently is well over £2,000 - to be split evenly between our two churches. Fr Neil has understandably said that he will never do such a marathon again... but then he said that last time!
















Back to the home page