(A shorter version of this article will be in our late summer edition of the Bulletin)
Our Café Church service on 29 June was jam packed with lots of music, memory making, faith and companionship. Many of our congregation and friends attended to mark our musician, John Patterson’s, final Sunday with us (for a while). John insists he won’t be gone forever and he has found, in us, a church family he wants to continue to be part of. John has made the difficult decision to step back from his role as church musician to allow him the chance to have more of a work/life balance. Working five days a week in his full-time job and two days a week with Craigsbank and East Craigs Parish Church has given him very little time to spend with his family, friends and hyperactive collie dog – Tess.
Our café service celebrated John in different ways. We had a beautiful duet sung by Emma and Jenny. They chose “For Good” from the musical Wicked and left many of us with slightly damp eyes. We all joined in with Abba’s “Thank You For the Music” which John wasn’t expecting but seemed too fitting to leave out. John chose the song “Friends” for the two of us to duet on and I didn’t cry – at least not then…. We finished with a Fischy Music song, “Doo, Doo, Doo” sung by the singers and Finn, Rose and Holly from the Junior Music Makers with everyone else joining in. There was so much love and laughter in the room, it was a joy to be part of. It was wonderful to have many of our musicians joining us too. Scott was on the drums, Al played the fiddle and Kyle was on the guitar. With me on bass and guitar and John on the keyboard we created a great celebration band.
John’s musical skills will be very much missed but, more importantly, his kind manner with, compassionate care and gentle direction of the Adult Singers will be very difficult to replace. John approached every singers’ practice with good humour and a calm demeanour. He challenged the singers to push the boundaries of their comfort zones, often without them realising he was doing it. How many of us could have imagined singing into recording apps on phones and emailing or WhatsApping files to John so he could blend all the individual tracks to create the worship songs we used during Covid? He simply explained how to do it and trusted that everyone, regardless of their previous levels of IT skills, would be able to do what he asked of us and his confidence in us encouraged us to rise to the challenge. Later, once we could meet in person again, the singers learned and performed music by Rutter and Bach as well as pieces in much more modern styles that many of us wouldn’t have considered possible without his guidance and patience. It often took many weeks (months!!) of practice, breaking every section down and learning them thoroughly before putting it all back together before we were confident enough to sing for our congregation on a Sunday but, with John’s confidence in our abilities, we succeeded. John fully embraced the new material he was given in the God Welcomes All supplement to CH4 and always chose hymns that were appropriate for the seasons and festivals of the church as well as being beautiful both in words and melody. We all joined in laughing over “Alan’s Challenge of the Week” when we would be presented on the Thursday evening with an unknown or lesser-known hymn to lead the congregation with on the following Sunday morning. Alan was never told about us referring to his “challenge” as we were worried he’d up the ante even further!
Junior Music Makers and Winter Wednesdays will now have a break as John was the glue that held these events together. Hopefully they won’t be gone forever but, for now, we are hitting pause. John was such a driving force for Winter Wednesdays and his planning and preparation meant that the musicians and singers were able to turn up on the evening to rehearse for the hour before our audience arrived and then just perform. He instilled the mellow vibe of the evening and everyone, performers and audience alike, benefitted. John’s choice of music for each concert was spot-on every time. We had regular attendees and occasional drop-ins who commented on how much they appreciated the repertoire that was presented and the atmosphere that was created with the candle-light and simple, quiet music. It was a joy to be part of.
Junior Music Makers was the exact opposite of the quiet, contemplative Winter Wednesdays. It was a riot of sound and colour! The different children we had the privilege to work with over the last five years were all wonderful. They ranged from the shy and nervous to the confident and bold. Some came to us knowing they were joining in with people they knew, some came knowing no-one initially, they all left having made new friends. I hope their parents did too. JMM was a pipe-dream idea of mine that John helped make a reality. I will always be grateful to him for supporting my whim and standing with me to make it a success, there is no way I could have achieved what we did achieve without him.
John and I became fast friends during the pandemic. We hadn’t met until early 2020 and really got to know each other over WhatsApp, email and Zoom! Thankfully we shared a sense of humour, a love of music and a desire to get as many other people to share our love of music as we were able. John was easy to work with. He didn’t make demands and he was happy to try different ways to engage both adults and kids. Our working relationship was always easy, never strained and I’m convinced that was the key to our success particularly with our Junior Music Makers.
So, for now, we say au revoir to John. He will be much missed as our church musician but I am very pleased to be able to assure everyone that he says he won’t be gone from our congregation for ever. Once he’s had a break, travelled, caught up with friends and family and gone on quite a few very long walks with Tess, he’ll be back worshipping with us on Sunday mornings. I’m sure he’ll get a very warm welcome when he does.
Ros Morrison