East Parade Malayalam Choir hosted the CSI Choir Festival, on the 14th of July (Saturday). The festival featured five choirs and one instrumental performance -The East Parade Junior Choir, comprising of little children from our church as young as four years of age to those on verge of becoming young adults; The Immanuel CSI Church Choir, K.R Puram, a group of talented singers focusing their ability on glorifying God; The UTC Students Choir, a team of budding vicars who have dedicated their entire lives to His service; The Ebenezer CSI Church Choir Chinnapanahalli, a choir still in a nascent stage but already packing quite a punch; Mr. Aswanth Vergis, performed instrumental pieces with a saxophone and pan flutes which were gifted to him by Benny Prasad; and to round it off, the East Parade Church Choir, a veritable battalion of singing missionaries.

The program was beautifully compered by Ms Sajini Mary Chandy, a member of the East Parade Church Choir. The worship service was a meaningful one with Rev. Prem Mitra of the CSI Church, Electronics City delivering a very pertinent yet concise message. He touched on the lyrics of songs delivered by each of the choirs with special appreciation to the East Parade Junior Choir for their song on the Servant King. While the harmony is important, he stressed on the fact that it is the lyrics that is truly the essence of the song. We should carry these with us, letting the values permeate our daily lives. Unfortunately, we tend to be just in-church Christians who do not display the same traits that we do in church, in our day to day lives. We must strive to be more like Christ – every day, in every way.

The choir festival concluded with all the choirs singing the beloved hymn “Vaazhthen Dehi Swar Raajane” – such an apt song for choristers. The purpose with which this Festival was started – That they all may be one – was met and surpassed with the bonhomie and fellowship between the geographically separated but spiritually kindred parishioners.