Shofar so good?

Our church is having a weekend of prayer and fasting.  There are lots of issues that need prayer at the moment; various situations that need more attention than we can give.

To start the weekend off, we had a service at St Oswalds.  I had a very obscure text message early on the Thursday morning from our vicar, Martin.  He had been informed by another (you know who you are) that I had previous at playing the trombone so might be able to play the Shofar at the service on Friday night.  My first issue was not knowing if I could help due to Caitlin's ballet commitments.  My second.....what's a Shofar??  Google to the rescue..."The Shofar, a well known symbol of Rosh Hashanah, is one of the earliest instruments used in Jewish music. Usually made from a rams horn....."

Anyway, I was free to play so I agreed.  By eck it's a wierd old thing.  It is indeed a ram's horn and is a good 2 foot long.  It is also surprisingly hard to play.  When playing a brass instrument, one has quite a sizeable mothpiece to work with; when playing a shofar, reduce that by half.  Add to this the fact that I lost my embrachure a good 15 years ago!  (If you don't know what one is.....Google it!)  It is surprisingly hard to master a consistent technique.  The net result was, at the service, really good.  It seemed to hit the note (pardon the pun) and was also quite moving to play - quite biblical to be honest.

Martin has since asked me to play again at both services tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to it.  The hairs on my neck will be at attention again!

10:30 (Sunday morning communion) and 19:00 (Prayer event) are the times for tomorrow if you fancy coming to join us!

TTFN

Hipp