The premier of this Mass by local composer Andrew Mayes, will be performed at St. George’s Church on Friday 28 June at 7:30pm.
This date is exactly 100 years to the day since the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, which brought an end to the First World War – the war to end all wars!
The Mass comprises words and music. Andrew has set the traditional texts of the Mass for choir, organ and brass. These have been interspersed with pieces of prose and poetry, which, within the shape of the Mass, remind us that we are one in Christ and are charged to work for peace and reconciliation in a world of division and strife.
Friday 28 June at 7:30pm
All are welcome and the performance is free with a retiring collection.
A traditional symbol of luck in Japan, the crane was popularised as a peace symbol by the story of Sadako Sasaki (1943 – 1955), a girl who died as a result of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. As a result of radiation, Sadako developed leukaemia and it is said that she spent her final days constructing origami paper cranes after being told some Japanese folklore which promises to grant a wish to whoever produces 1000 of them. Her story inspired the adoption of the paper crane as a symbol of peace in Japan and statues of the girl stands in Hiroshima’s Peace Park and Seattle’s peace park, often adorned in paper cranes by visitors.
The coloured cranes depicted were made as part of a festival at St. George’s back in 2011.