This month we have taken delivery of a new Yamaha C7X grand piano. This beautiful instrument will serve our church for decades to come and enable a greater flexibility of music making, both in worship and services, but also through recitals and lunchtime concerts. 

Week by week, we are aware that our fine 3-manual Tickell organ is a superb and versatile instrument: it is as brilliant in leading large congregations and handling French organ symphonies as it is when accompanying 16th century verse anthems (Orlando Gibbons’s, This is the record of John, for example). This should be no surprise: it was designed by Kenneth Tickell and Dr William McVicker (Director of Music here between 1988-2019). Their work so evidently seized the opportunity to create something positive from the devastation of the fire in 1992. They were both acutely aware of the legacy that remains in installing a new instrument. Almost thirty years on we still benefit, week by week, from the vision and determination of McVicker and Tickell in designing and building our organ. 

William’s 31 years’ service is inspiring and testament to his commitment. He told me how he was inspired by his predecessor, Raymond Gray, who was Organist and Director of Music between 1951-1988 and continued to deputise for William in to the early ‘90s. You may have noticed the bench dedicated to Raymond that sits outside St Barnabas underneath the welcome area’s canopy. Raymond sadly never heard the new organ because he died in 1995. There is no doubt he would have been enthused by the improvement on the Speechly instrument in the Victorian church that had (by all accounts) seen better days. 

Three decades on, our new piano is a significant moment for us, not only because it gives us a first-class instrument that now matches our pipe organ, but more so because it is given in memory of both Raymond Gray and Audrey Skillman. 

Audrey was a stalwart of St Barnabas and a committed member of our congregation for over five decades. Members of the choir recall how Audrey would stand in the welcome area to greet the choir as they began their procession into church, such was her love of the choir and choral music. Audrey died in May 2023 and her gift has enabled us to invest in music and purchase a much needed new piano.  

Audrey lived with her sister, Lynn Gray (1932-2016), who was married to Raymond. They all lived in Woodwarde Road until moving to flats in Dulwich Mead in the early 2000s. 

There is something hugely humbling about this generous gift. Both Raymond and Lynn’s, and Audrey’s, service, commitment and faithfulness to St Barnabas continues to this day through their gift to us. 

There will be opportunity over the coming months to give thanks for the legacy of Audrey and the Grays through music and the playing of the piano. This instrument gives us new possibilities that were not feasible with our current instruments that are heavily worn and in desperate need of replacement.  We begin with  these two lunchtime concerts ; we will host music examinations; we will enable community music groups to offer concerts that previously needed to be held elsewhere.  

Above all, however, this instrument will be used to lead and inspire worship with our choirs. Given that the combined service of Audrey, Lynn and Raymond tops a century, enabling music in worship is an entirely fitting tribute to them. 

Christopher Woodward 
Director of Music