Pastoral Associate of Music and Liturgy, Ellen Oak, led six members of the Good Shepherd community in a beautiful handbell performance this Christmas season. The merry crew of amateur musicians learned and played four festive pieces. You can watch their moving rendition of Carol of the Bells in the video below.
Members of Good Shepherd play Carol of the Bells.
The history of handbells at Good Shepherd
In October 2007 parishioners at Church of the Good Shepherd raised enough money to purchase a 3-octave set of high-quality English handbells. Jay Lane, our music director at the time, also purchased several other items helpful for handbell choirs: stand-up music folders; music stands with space underneath to lay bells down; additional sheet music arranged for handbells. The new handbells made their debut at the Lessons & Carols service in December 2007, adding their lovely sweet sound to an already special service.
Over the years, we have assembled both adult and youth handbell choirs to provide special music at select services. Early handbell enthusiast Ronnie Diesl created several protective foam pads and decorative cover slips to use with our folding tables. Bells are an easy and fun way to participate in our music ministry. All the skills you need are the ability to count to 4, and to tell your left hand from your right.
If you’d like to get involved in making music at Good Shepherd, please contact us.