Faith Features

A vicar from Stone, in Staffordshire, says that the art of singing has been  almost completely lost over the years; and that listening to people's half hearted efforts to strike up a tune in his church can be painful.

He says the main reason for this is that people have less and less opportunity to sing these days. In fact only football fans and karaoke addicts regularly test their vocal chords.

The Reverend Paul Kingman at Christ Church in Stone has a plan for getting things back to the good old days.

Elvis used to sing gospel

It may be a rose-tinted view, tainted by nostalgia, but Reverend Kingman longs for the days when celebrities like Elvis Presley gave church music a good name, families gathered round the piano together and the songs children learned at school were the same as those sang in church.

He says there's nothing more anti-climactic than when the organ strikes up at a wedding, funeral or Christening and you're expecting a rousing rendition of How Great Thou Art of The Old Rugged Cross and all you get is a whimper!

But he knows it's the churches responsibility to change this. Reverend Kingman believes generations who have not been to church are now unfamiliar with traditional hymns and more modern music is one way of getting them to drop their inhibitions and join in.

He also wants to have more of the same songs children are learning at local schools played in church so that, in the years to come, when the organ strikes up the pews will once again be alive with the sound of music.