Archbishop drums up enthusiasm
BY HELEN HARVEY
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The Archbishop of York joined in with a combined schools jazz band and played the conga drum at St Mary's Pro Cathedral yesterday.
Halfway into the New Plymouth Girls' High School and Boys' High School band's performance and with very little fanfare, Archbishop John Sentamu, walked up front and joined in the performance. Afterwards he bowed to the band and sat down.
Later the Ugandan said he had enjoyed the experience.
"It was fantastic. The jazz band was amazing.
"I was hoping to do another number."
He was disappointed the equipment had been moved, because he wouldn't be able to get the band to play during afternoon tea, he said.
The music opened a two-hour event where representatives from nine Taranaki secondary schools showcased their schools and their talent.
There were professional presentations from Francis Douglas Memorial College, Spotswood College and Inglewood High School. New Plymouth Girls' and Boys' High Schools entertained with music, as did a group from Stratford High School and the Tenners choir and kapa haka group from Sacred Heart Girls' College.
Waitara High School's Tama Porter, 17, amazed with his performance on the piano and Cecily Shaw, 16, from St Mary's Diocesan School, showed her talent and her sense of fun when she played the ukulele and sung a song she wrote herself about a ballerina being sucked up a vacuum cleaner. Later during the open forum she asked Archbishop Sentamu if humour would have a place in heaven.
He replied if there was not going to be joy in heaven he was not going to go.
"Heaven is not a boring place."
The youngsters put several questions to the archbishop during the forum.
They ranged from perceived inconsistencies between the Old and New Testaments, to the issue of the difference in the wealth of the Anglican Church and the poverty of its parishioners to non-religious questions such as what was the Anglican Church's position on global warming.
Archbishop Sentamu said there was risk that global warming was becoming a new religion.
He wasn't scared about what was happening to the planet, but as a citizen of the world he was trying to shrink his carbon footprint by recycling, walking or cycling when he could and turning off lights.
In response to a question on how he dealt with the pressure of leadership the archbishop said he had been silly and now had his own website and was on Facebook and Twitter.
Most of the hits came from China, Archbishop Sentamu said, and he hadn't bargained for the number of Twitter messages he would get. "My wife tells me to slow down, which she knows is a waste of time."
Tonight the archbishop will be attending a concert at St Mary's Pro Cathedral hosted by Dame Malvina Major and Bishop Philip Richardson. The concert features emerging young Taranaki musicians and singers.
- © Fairfax NZ News
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