ON Sunday, September 7, Holy Cross saw the presentation of awards to seven of the Church’s choristers during the annual Friends’ Evensong service.

These grants will provide access to instrumental and voice tuition during the coming year, and have been provided by the Crediton Church Music Endowment Fund.

This Fund was founded in 2009 by Nigel Guthrie, the then vicar at Holy Cross, and its aim is to raise enough capital to be able to support future music-making in the church indefinitely.

To-date the Fund has raised about £60,000, which this year will support the making of grants and awards totalling £5,000 to young members of the church choir.

In one case, the Fund has also provided a keyboard on loan to one choir member. The awards are open to anyone in the church community, and age is no bar.

The Music Endowment Fund has some lively fund-raising events coming up this Autumn, starting with a new production, “Bach to Broadway”, at 3.30pm on Sunday, September 14 in the church, followed by tea and cakes in the Boniface Centre.

This will be a first performance of a work put together by Endowment Fund Treasurer, Karen Reed, for her OU degree.

On October 8, and repeating a very successful event from last year, the church will be transformed into a jazz club for the evening, with a very good local jazz band and excellent food and drink provided by the Baobab Café with a Persian theme.

On November 8, Remembrance weekend, and reflecting the war-torn world, Tina Guthrie, another Trustee, will lead a Come and Sing day for a performance of Karl Jenkins' “The Armed Man”.

Tickets for all these events can be purchased online at: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/crediton-parish-church-music-endowment-fund, and will also be available to buy at the door.