Edward Cumberbatch

by Edward Cumberbatch Tenor Soloist

Growing up as a preacher’s kid in the village of La Pastora, Santa Cruz had its pluses. Some things you could easily take for granted. There was green all around. A lush pasture right across the road with a sprinkling of a few cows to add purpose to the colour scape. The hills were also ever present and all around so that one could lift up one’s eyes to them and wonder where help would come from. With both parents as pastors, how convenient it was that the church was only a hop skip and a jump away.

Christmas was always a special time. Sure, the thought of a new matchbox car or even a wow present like a Scalextric set was exciting. However, it was the regimen and certainty of the Christmas day schedule that remains memorable today. The day always started with “Rise and Shine!”, spoken … well practically sung by mummy as she called to wake up her three sleepy children to get ready to go to sunrise service at 5 am. That chant call set the tone for the day. It was filled with urgency yet inviting, of anticipation and yet promise for the day which had already begun to unfold.

Not unlike my childhood scenario is the present-day Lydian reality. The call has gone out to Arise, Shine for Thy Light is come. Arising, as difficult as it may be, is the more straightforward of the twofold command. The Lydian leadership has certainly set the tone. Their tireless efforts have not gone unnoticed and in fact have been infectiously inviting the urgency of purpose and resolve. Shining, now that requires some real determination and a whole lot of help. Fortunately, we have good reason to shine, for Thy light has come. We are guided through the music, sung or played, the dance, the word, the art to shine, not to be ourselves seen but to reflect His light and honour Him.