General:
| SONGS OF PRAISE FACTSHEET FOR SUNDAY 25TH NOVEMBER 2007
Songs of Praise - from Greyfriars Tolbooth and Highland Kirk, Edinburgh, Presented by Sally Magnusson Producer David Strachan On the Sunday before both St Andrews Day (Nov 30th) and World Aids Day (Dec 1st) Sally Magnusson is in her native Scotland, which adopted the apostle Andrew as its patron saint a thousand years ago. A few of his relics brought to the coastal town of St Andrews meant Scotland became a place of international pilgrimage. This programme celebrates Scots making a difference at home, and building relationships with communities making a difference internationally. |
| Stories
BRIAN SOUTER Using his bus driver father's redundancy money Brian Souter and his sister founded Stagecoach at the time public transport was being deregulated, and used the new opportunity to drive rapid growth of a company which is now international. One of Scotland's most successful entrepreneurs, Brian is well known as practising Christian. He is a member of the Church of the Nazarene in his native Perth, but is actively involved in initiatives led by all Perth churches. In this interview Brian tells how important his faith is in his work and his everyday life. www.stagecoachbus.com GALGAEL Colin MacLeod led the protest movement against the construction of the M77 motorway in Glasgow. It was a battle he lost, but having discovered the potency of community he founded Galgael (The Foreign Gael), and organisation dedicated to making those who are or feel outside become restored and affirmed. He believed in the spiritual value of developing skills in working with natural materials, and in Galgael's workshop old bits of wood are turned into beautiful artefacts. Recycling things, and recycling people who have been rejected. Galgael specialises in building, reconstructing and restoring boats, believing that launching out in something you have helped build, setting off on a journey, and arriving at a destination, are vivid life and faith metaphors. After Colin died two years ago, his vision was sustained by a team led by his widow Gehan. www.galgael.org LIWOMADI Livingstone Women Making a Difference (Li Wo Ma Di) is the response of two women from Livingstone, the town named after the Scottish missionary David Livingstone, in Zambia, to the Aids crisis. 30% of the country's population is HIV positive, and Aids leaves a lot of widows, widowers, orphans and child headed families. Liwomadi's first aim is to relieve the poverty which is exaggerated by Aids. Our cameras saw a chicken farm, where the eggs and chickens can be sold to raise cash for the community. But we also saw how difficult this process is because the village in which the farm has been set up is a long way from the road and transport to market. Dealing with stigma is high on Liwomadi's agenda. If people feel judged they won't come forward for testing, and if they don't get tested they are at risk of spreading infection. So promoting an attitude of acceptance is key to reducing the spread of HIV. Liwomadi organises a Woman of the Year competition - catwalk and all - where the qualification for entry is to be HIV positive. Martha Baillie works for Waverly Care, an Aids charity in Edinburgh. Eunice Sineyemu works for the Scottish Government's Aids project. Both of them, with support from the Church of Scotland HIV/Aids project, visited Zambia to develop a partnership allowing both countries to learn from each other's very different experiences. The Church of Scotland's Aids project has also given funds raised by congregations to Liwomadi. www.churchofscotland.org.uk/appeals/hivaids www.waverleycare.org |
| MUSICIANS
Dunedin Consort www.dunedin-consort.org.uk Is a group of professional singers and musicians founded in 1996. It has recently recorded the original Dublin version of the Messiah, from which Rejoice Greatly as seen in the programme is an extract. Their recording won Baroque CD of the year in the 2007 awards of Gramophone Magazine CD, which described it as "the freshest, most natural, revelatory and transparently joyful Messiah I have heard for a very long time". This recording is the first to explore the version and forces that Handel himself used for his legendary first performance of the work in Dublin in 1742. Research was carried out by the group's co artistic director and Professor of Music at Glasgow University, John Butt, and gives a striking impression of how the work must have sounded when first heard. This was an as live recording specially for Songs of Praise, but the CD is available from Linn CKD285 Soloist Susan Hamilton http://edubuzz.org/blogs/humbie Is co founder and artistic director of the Dunedin Consort, and an internationally acclaimed soprano specialising in baroque and modern music who has recorded for most major classical labels. She was also responsible for the performance by Humbie Primary School, where her enthusiastic teaching skills enabled the entire school to be included in their performance. Edinburgh Singers www.edinburghsingers.org.uk Is an amateur Edinburgh choir which was established 50 years ago and regularly performs in Greyfriars Kirk and all over Scotland and Europe New Scottish www.newscottish.org Is a broad based organisation gathering Christian musicians under its umbrella and performing a wide variety of musical genres across Scotland Soloist Emily Smith info@emilysmith.org Hails from the South West of Scotland, has several albums to her name, and a former winner of BBC Young Traditional Musician of the Year. MUSIC: SONGS OF PRAISE SIGNATURE TUNE Composer: Robert Prizeman Performers: Robert Prizeman, Maurice Murphy, Steven Geraghty Sheet music for the Songs of Praise signature tune is published by Chester Music, catalogue number CH55835. You can listen to the theme tune on CS 2 of the Songs of Praise Album FOR ALL THE SAINTS, WHO FROM THEIR LABOURS REST Music: Ralph Vaughan Williams Words: William Walsham How Tune: Sine Nomine Source: Church Hymnary fourth edition REJOICE GREATLY FROM THE MESSIAH Composer: George Frederic Handel Performed by: Dunedin Consort with Soloist Susan Hamilton www.dunedin-consort.org.uk SING OF ANDREW, JOHN'S DISCIPLE Words: Carl P. Daw, Jr (b. 1944) Tune: Lewis Folk melody Arranged: john Bell Source: Church Hymnary fourth edition MARCHING IN THE LIGHT OF GOD Music: Siyahamba Words: South African traditional melody Arranged by Torquil Munro www.torquilmunro.com Performed by: The pupils of Humbie Primary School JESUS DRAW ME EVER NEARER Words: Margaret Becker Arranged by: Greg de Blieck and Jason McAuley Performed by The New Scottish Folk Sessions Featuring Emily Smith www.newscottish.org Emily Smith info@emilysmith.org A GAELIC BLESSING Music: john Rutter Words: adapted from an old Gaelic rune Performed by: The Edinburgh Singers Copyright The Royal School of Church Music www.edinburghsingers.org.uk TELL OUT MY SOUL, THE GREATNESS OF THE LORD! Music: Walter Greatorex Words: Timothy Dudley-Smith based on the Magnificat from The New English Bible Tune: Woodlands Source: Church Hymnary fourth edition |
| LOCATIONS:
Musical items all performed at Greyfriars Tolbooth and Highland Kirk Greyfriars Place, Edinburgh, EH1 2QQ, in October 2007 email administrator@greyfriarskirk.com Telephone and fax 0131 225 1900 Visitor information 0131 226 5429 www.greyfriars.org/ Sally Magnusson's links were filmed from Mound Place overlooking Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh; in the churchyard at Greyfriars Church in November 2007,and outside Humbie Primary School, Humbie, East Lothian, EH36 5PJ OTHER LOCATIONS WERE: Waverley Care: SOLAS, the café of this Edinburgh based charity SOLAS 2 - 4 Abbey Mount, Edinburgh EH8 8EJ Tel 0131 476 4530 And various locations in and around Livingstone, Zambia, filmed in August 2007 |
| The programme was produced by Tern Television Productions
www.terntv.com |