Saturday, 21 December 2013 00:00
-
- {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The Army Band stole the show at the YMCA Carols 2013 held at the picturesque Race Course, which has been refurbished and is looking good.
Saturday 7 December saw the Colombo YMCA hold its annual Carol Service at the newly-refurbished Race Course Grand stand with a capacity crowd. The Army Choir and Band were outstanding as they played the lilting Christmas melodies and their rendition of ‘When a child is born’ was particularly impressive.
The Colombo YMCA has been in existence for 132 years and the YMCA Carol Service is one of the oldest in the country where carols are sung by the public with the participation of all denominations that displays the unity within the Christian community.
The YMCA Carols are also accepted by people of all walks of life in a program conducted in all three languages and people of all faiths participate in it. This time in addition to schools, churches, visually handicapped people and different organisations singing Carols the special feature was the Sri Lanka Army Band in addition to the normal participation of the Salvation Army Band.
It is traditional to have the YMCA Carol Service on the first Saturday of December. The Salvation Army Band as usual accompanied all the congregational carols and the Tamil choir of St. Thomas’ Church, Colombo 12, the choir of De Mazenod College, Kandana, the wonderful singing of the ‘Visually Handicapped Singers,’ the Sinhala choir of Ladies College, the choir of Wesley College, and the choir of St. Benedict’s College kept the crowd entertained.
The Bidding Prayer was by Rev. S.K. Kadirgamar and the Welcome Address was delivered by the dynamic President of the Colombo YMCA, Lal Withanage. The vote of thanks was given by Vijith Pieris, Director, Colombo YMCA. The principal sponsors were Abans Ltd., Simon and Associates and Wesley Moses, with DFCC, Commercial Bank and Asian Alliance as co-sponsors. Cinnamon Lakeside and Cinnamon Grand provided food items.
