Beautiful Bells on the Seine - Sunday, 22 January

As you may have read on my posts from prior trips, my favorite Sunday morning haunt is The American Church in Paris - it's a lively non-denominational Protestant church with excellent preaching, marvelous music, tons of programs for all ages, bible and book studies, a beautiful building on the banks of the Seine, job- and housing-posting boards for the public, the most racially diverse congregation I've ever encountered, and really good coffee after the 11:00 service!  www.acparis.org

Often, touring choirs from colleges and churches provide preludes and special music for the service, but this week it was the church's own large handbell choir playing Festival Prelude on "Deo Gracias" by Sondra Tucker between the Ol Testament reading and the Epistle.  Wow!  I have never heard such insightful playing with such varied styles and effects; they even played some huge octave 2 handchimes in this piece.  But the beauty of the composition and the depth of expression and musicality of performance were what absolutely captivated me (and the packed church) - several soft "amen's" were heard at the end of the piece, and one guy just couldn't refrain from applauding (something not normally done there!) so we all joined in!

People often ask me if I'm considering retiring to Paris.  I'm not, primarily due to mobility issues, but if I did, one of the attractions would certainly be the opportunity to sing in the choir and/or participate in other musical and educational and fellowship opportunities at ACP!  Here's a shot I snapped towards the end of the fellowship/coffee time in the theater adjacent to the sanctuary after the service (the crowd had thinned considerably by this point).  A good time was had by all!