City Harvest Celebrations in Gloucester

Gloucester Salvation Army Band (Bandmaster Clifford Matthews) and Songsters (Songster Leader Phil Webb) presented two hours of music and worship in the center of Gloucester City on Saturday, 22 September 2007. The recently redeveloped Kings Square was a new venue for the Salvationist music-making, and the space enabled people to stop and listen more readily than in the previous location in crowded Eastgate Street.

The band played a wide range of music including Trumpet Voluntary, Harvest Celebration, and, in preparation for England’s appearance in the Rugby World Cup, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. A number of people made use of the chairs and tables in the square to spend time enjoying the music and showed their appreciation both in applause and in terms of giving toward the Salvation Army’s work in Gloucester.

The songsters led worship for an hour, sharing music, prayer, readings from the Bible and traditional harvest hymns with those who gathered to listen. Music included O Happy Day, Bandmaster Matthews’ setting of The Lord’s My Shepherd, and Rock Eternal. The message brought through the Bible encouraged people to be appreciative of God’s provision for them, and, in the words of Jesus, not to “worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

The Salvation Army in Gloucester expressed thanks to the City authorities for allowing them to share harvest with the people of Gloucester in this way, and to the many stall holders and traders in Kings Square who supported the effort in different ways.