BCGC

Yesterday I went to see the Belfast Community Gospel Choir. The woman who runs it, Marie, is all about the joy. Bringing joy into people’s lives. She’s very good at it. In between the choir’s joyful songs, she mixes it up with the audience. She met Mary, 86, whose husband died 30 years ago and who lost one of her sons two years ago. Mary was embraced in all the love Marie has to offer. She also met John, who was given a hard time for having a coat on inside. “Sure what’ll you do when you go outside? You’ll freeze cause you’ve no coat to put on.”

Before playing “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” she called up the CEO of the Simon Center, a homeless charity receiving proceeds from the night. He was compelled, unwillingly, to dance with his wife in front of the audience, as they had danced to this song on their wedding night. It’s the team song for Liverpool football club so they must be Liverpool fans. So then Maria gets John up and starts dancing with him. Then she gets Mary up and has John dance with Mary. My heart is melting because I think Mary has probably not danced in decades and it’s a lovely thing to be that close to someone, even a stranger. Then Maria grabs one of the -- HOT -- Belgian cameramen filming the event and dances with him. The crowd goes wild. A Belgian documentarian is doing a piece about cities that have overcome conflict, so he and his -- HOT!! -- crew joined us.

The music, the banter, the dancing, the hot Belgians, it was a perfect night. Marie points to the cameramen and says: "I don’t know how you voted in Brexit, but this is what you are giving up ladies.”

Shall we return to the Autumn Fair for a minute?



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