New Beginings - 3. NB Chapter 3

It wasn’t until near the end of the song, that only myself and the Reverend were singing, and she had a beautiful voice, and I blushed a little as I sat down along with the rest of the congregation. “For those who don’t know who that fine singer is, Huon Davenport, is the son of the late Mathew Davenport, who sadly passed away a few weeks ago. Huon is also a student at the Grammar school where I am the chaplain.

It seems he has been hiding his talents from all of us, as I was not aware of his beautiful voice until just now. Please join us as we pray for Huon, as he passes through this difficult time in his life, we pray lord that you will guide him as he continues with his studies at school, and that you be there for him as he continues to mourn the loss of his father – Mathew. Lord, guide us to help Huon in anyway, that will easy his burden, as he goes through this difficult time in his life, In Jesus name we Pray. Amen” Reverend Davies said.

When I opened my eyes at the end of that prayer, I found Kyle sitting next to me, smiling, and I nodded my head in acknowledgement, and the service continued, with Kyle being there for me, as I struggled with my emotions from time to time. As we neared the end of the service, I notice Kyle open his hymn book to Hymn number 65, and he showed it to me, and motioned me to follow him.

I was a little reluctant, as it had been a very emotional morning for me so far, but as the organ began to play, Kyle grabbed my arm and pulled me up and out into the aisle, and place the hymn book between us, and Kyle began to sing the first verse of Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. I was a little stunned that he had a beautiful voice too, as I listened, and just before he ended the first verse he gave me a little nudge with his elbow, and took a step forward and I did the same, as I joined in with the second verse.

No one else in the church sung, just Kyle and me, and I noticed that the acoustics in the church were great for this type of singing, as we continued to sing together, with the chorus and then the third verse and finally the chorus once more. As we finished the hymn, Reverend Davies stood up and held out her arms, and began saying the benediction prayer, “May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all, now and for ever more, Amen. Go in peace to love and serve the Lord, in the name of Christ, amen” the Rev said, and with that, the service had concluded.

Reverend Davies walked down the aisle towards the back entry to the church, where Kyle and I still stood, and she expectantly gave me a warm hug, before giving her son a hug as well, and she lead us outside, where we stepped to one side, as the congregation filed out of the church, and made their way over to the hall for some morning tea. A lot of the congregation shook my hand, as they came out of the church, and thanked me for the wonderful singing, and wished me all the best for the future.

Once the church was empty, Reverend Davies returned inside, and Kyle grabbed my arm and pulled me towards the hall, but I stayed firm, not wanting to face the people from church, but Kyle persisted, and eventually I gave in and followed him into the hall, and he directed me to the kitchen counter, where we received a cup of tea, and told to help ourselves to the cakes and biscuits on the table, which we did.

When Reverend Davies reappeared, she was dressed in neat casual clothes, having removed her dog collar and vestments, that are traditionally worn my ministers and priests. “Can you stay for lunch, Kyle and I would very much like you to have lunch with us” Reverend Davies asked me, “Yes, Ma’am, that would be very nice thank you” I replied politely, “That’s good, off you two go now, just be back by 12.30 in time for lunch” she said with a smile, and Kyle grabbed my arm and led me out of the hall.

“Where are you taking me?” I asked as we exited the hall, “firstly let’s dump our jackets and ties at my place, then we can go for a walk around town” Kyle suggested, and I smiled and nodded my head in agreement. About an hour later, we made our way back to the church, and the vestry office door was still unlocked, so we entered, but there was no one around.

“This place has some awesome acoustics, lets stand in the middle of the church and give it a try” Kyle suggested, and I followed Kyle back into the church, which had its main rear doors closed and locked now. “Ok, so what are we going to sing?” I asked Kyle when we reached the middle, “Grab a hymn book, and let’s try number 16, I think it is” Kyle replied, and I grabbed a hymn book from the pew, and opened it up to hymn number 16, The Lord is my Shepherd, and I smiled.

I began singing the 1^st verse, and Kyle sang the 2^nd verse, and together we sang the 3^rd verse, I sang the 4^th verse and Kyle sang the last verse. “That was beautiful boys” Reverend Davies said from near the alter, not realising that she was listening to us the whole time, “We were just checking out the acoustics mum” Kyle said to his mother.

“This church has awesome sound to it” I added, “That it has, now young man, how come we haven’t noticed your talents at school chapel” the Rev asked me, and I looked down at my feet and blushed a little, “maybe because I didn’t want to be noticed” I replied quietly, “Well you definitely was noticed today, you have a wonderful voice, it is a gift that you should use, it would be a waste not to let people hear you sing” the Rev said to me.

“I will sing here at church, but nowhere else, and I don’t want anyone at the school to know about my singing, that includes music teachers, if you try to get me to sing at school I will clam up and I won’t come to church either” I said seriously, and the Rev looked at me for a few moments, and seeing that I was being very serious on this, she agreed to not say anything at school.

“That applies to you too Mr” I said to Kyle, as I faced him, no one and I mean no one at school is to know” I said sternly. “Err, there might be a slight problem there, I recorded the last hymn that we sang during church, and I downloaded it to Facebook” Kyle said to me. “Oh Crap, oops sorry ma’am” I said apologising for the slip of bad language, and the Rev just smiled, as I pulled out my mobile phone and logged onto Facebook.

I found the posting that Kyle had done, and looked at it, “Check this out, a friend and I singing in a church, the acoustics are awesome” I read, and I was pleased that he hadn’t used my name, as I clicked on the audio clip, with no video footage, which I was glad of, as I listened to the audio clip. “Dude we have had 12,050 viewings and 1,085 likes since I posted this just over an hour ago” Kyle said excitedly.

“No more postings, unless I give you permission to do it understood” I said to Kyle and reluctantly he agreed, as we headed out of the church, and over to the Rectory for some lunch. After a very nice lunch, I thanked Reverend Davies for her hospitality, and I headed back home to the farm, as I had some chores to complete. At Monday lunchtime, at school, I spotted Kyle in the distance, and he was being heckled by a group of students in his year.

I walked a little closer to see if I could hear what it was all about, without being too obvious, and when I was close enough, I could hear that Kyle was being questioned about the audio clip on face book, and they were wanting to know who the other person in the audio clip is. I heard Kyle say that it was a friend from church, who goes to the local district high school, and that he would not reveal who his friend is.

Kyle’s class mates started to get a little rougher with him, but luckily a teacher spotted the incident and broke it up, and I walked away, to keep out of sight, as I pulled out my mobile and sent a quick text message, “Are you ok, I was close by and watching what happened”, and moments later I received a reply, “Really, I didn’t see you, I am fine, I wish I hadn’t posted that audio clip now, catch you after school”, I smiled after reading the message, as I kept walking away, to find a place to eat.

At the end of the school day, as we drove home to Toodyay, I asked Kyle about what happened at school today. “Those guys were mostly members of the school choir, and they didn’t like being publicly humiliated by someone who definitely has some singing talent, I kept telling them it was no one from this school, and I took the audio clip off Facebook” Kyle replied.

“Thanks for keeping it secret, and I am sorry that you are being hassled for keeping it secret” I said to Kyle, “Nah, it’s my fault for putting the audio clip on face book in the first place” Kyle replied, “I have an idea how we can fool these blokes and humiliate them some more, but we will need the Rev’s help” I said with a smile, as we continued towards our home town.

We found Kyle’s mum in her office, at the back of the church, when we arrived in Toodyay, “Hello boys, how was school today?” she said as we walked in, “Well I had a few hassles at school, and it is all because of that audio clip that I posted on Facebook, and Huon has an idea on how we can put those guys in their place” Kyle started to explain, and I continued with the idea that I had been mashing out during the trip home.

Twenty minutes later, Kyle’s mum had a broad smile on her face, “I like it, and I have a good idea who the boys in the choir are, without saying their names, and this will indeed put the wind up their backsides” the Rev said, and we laugh chuckled at this comment. “I will make some arrangements for you to carry out this plan, when would the best times be for you to put this plan into action?” the Rev asked, “Saturdays and Sundays for the next few weeks, and it might be a good idea for me not to be at church for a while, just in case any of the boys from school decided to make an unexpected visit” I replied.

Over the next few days I kept a close eye on Kyle during the lunch break, and each afternoon, on our journey home, Kyle would let me know what happened, as the boys continue to hassle him regarding the audio clip. On the Thursday afternoon, when we arrived at the church, expecting to find the Rev in her office, we found her at the pulpit practicing her sermon for this coming Sunday.

“Good afternoon boys, how was your day?” she said to us, “Sorry to interrupt your practice mum, we just wanted to ask how you were going with the plans” Kyle said to his mum, “I was going to organise a chat to discuss that, but since you are both here now, let’s go to my office, and I can let you know what I have arranged” the Rev said to us, and she spent the next half an hour telling us what she had organised.

For the next three weeks, we would be visiting churches in the suburbs and country, starting with St Georges Cathedral in the city on Saturday morning, which was built in 1879, and in the afternoon, Christ Church in the western suburb of Claremont, which was built in 1892, followed by St John’s Church in Fremantle on Sunday, which was also built in 1879, after the 9am service. The Rev said that she had arranged for an Anglican theatre group to assist with this project, with them providing lighting and video equipment, that will record the performances, and once it is done, we will decide what to do next.

The following weekend we will visit St Mary’s Church in the town of Kojonup, which was built in 1958, and the All Saints Church in Mt Barker, which was built in 1900 and the next day, St John’s Church in Albany, the state’s oldest church, built in 1841, located in the far south of the state. The final churches will be the St James Church, located in the town of Moora, which was built in 1911, the Holy Trinity Church in Northampton, which was built in 1908 and finally a day trip the Rottnest Island Chapel, built in 1860.

The Rev said that she was also working on two chapels, that being St Georges Chapel, in Crawley, which is part of the University of WA, which was built in 1931, and the St George and St Mary Chapel at our Grammar School, which was built in 1914. I expressed concern about being recognising if it is filmed, and the Rev ensured that the lighting will be in a way, that only the outline of me will be visible, and that I would be wearing a Cassock to help with the disguise.

On the Friday afternoon, as we were heading home from school, Kyle’s mobile rang, “Hello Mum, what’s happening” Kyle said with a smile and he listened into his mum’s talking, “Ok, we will see you there shortly, bye for now” Kyle eventually said, before he hung up. “Mum is at your place, and she has the three techs from the theatre group with her” Kyle announced with a smile.

Twenty-five minutes later, we arrived at the farm, and we saw the Rev’s car and another car out the front, and they were sitting on the chairs on the veranda. Once we were introduced to everyone, I led everyone inside, and we sat down at the dining room, while I prepared some afternoon tea for everyone. Over the next hour, we discussed the plans for the weekend, Reverend Davies had arranged for the Cathedral organist, to be at St Georges at 9am, and that we had access to the cathedral for two hours.

The Christ Church in Claremont, we had access from 1pm for two hours, and the next day, we will have access to the church from 11am till 1pm. Once the meeting was over, we saw the tech team leave, and we headed back inside again, “So Huon, how do you feel about all of this now that we about to start this project” Reverend Davies asked me, “I am a little nervous, and I hope that it will end up being good, and also that my identity won’t be revealed.

The next day, as we finished doing our first performance and recording, the Dean of the Cathedral appeared, “That is an incredible voice that you have there, young man, I am glad that I authorised this project to take place here” the Dean said with a big smile. The lead media tech stepped forward, “Dean Bennett, I was wondering if we could get you to make an introduction to this project” the media tech asked.

“I would be very happy to do that. From what Annette Davies here has told me, you boys are doing a lot of travelling over the next three weeks, give me a few minutes to write something up, and I will come in to record it here inside the Cathedral” the Dean replied, and he headed to the front of the building and disappeared down some stairs to the right of the alter.

Fifteen minutes later, he reappeared and handed Reverend Davies the page that had his introduction written on it, “I think this is perfect Dean Bennett, shall we get it recorded now, so you can have the cathedral open to the public again, reverend Davies announced, as she handed the page back to the Dean, and twenty minutes later, with the introduction completed, we thanked the Dean for his time, and for the use of the building, and we exited out via a side door, to avoid any public interaction.