Karabo Ntanzi
St Augustine’s was on point when he coined the phrase, “singing is praying twice.” Kimberley Deanery Catholic Choirs held their annual Liturgical Competition at St Boniface on 9 August.
The audience was revived and happily sang along to hymns and choruses rendered by St Peter’s, Our Lady of Fatima Shrine, St Boniface, 14 Streams District Choirs, and the Kimberley Deanery Youth Choir under the baton of a young and talented Bradley Mankwe.
Secretary for Kimberley Deanery Catholic Choirs Peggy Kompe said: “The objective of the competition is to purify our liturgy and to rearrange our hymns. The competition is divided into two categories and is based on our Liturgical Calendar. For this year, we chose the Advent season, hence the first song is hymn 62 in our Hymn Books, followed by the confession and Our Father. The second category is Offertory, choirs are expected to sing one hymn and a chorus”.
A popular chorister, who grew up in the choral music scene and graduated to the role of adjudicator, Kgololo a.k.a Mazaza Hlakudi, praised the Catholic Church for this initiative. He said competition makes a choir improve because it puts them under pressure. Hlakudi encourages other churches to follow the competition route to enhance the love of choral music.
St Peter’s conductor, Perpetual Mogamisi, a veteran in choral music, shared some challenges, “Most choir members are between 70 and 85 years, especially the back line. This makes it difficult for me because sometimes they forget what we practiced. They also belong to other sodalities within the church, making it difficult to attend practice regularly.”
Mogamisi also remarked that Choral Music is dying in the Province, but they are trying to revive it.
The day started with Mass conducted by Fr. Norman Mosito from St Boniface, whose responsibility was to ensure that choirs interpret the hymns correctly. Mosito was accompanied by Fr Molefe Koloi.
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