July 29 – August 4, 2017
Livestream of the Camp Meetings
Sunday Morning July 30 Livestream
Sunday Evening July 30 Livestream
Friday Night August 4 Livestream
CANADIAN STAFF BAND (2017 GUEST BAND)
The Canadian Staff Band was invited to participate in the 2017 Old Orchard Beach Camp Meetings as the “duty” band for the first weekend of the meetings. However, the band filled many more functions than just a “duty” band as they presented 3 additional festivals and participated in a March of Witness down Old Orchard Beach Avenue to the Pier during their Old Orchard visit.
On the Friday night before the camp meetings began, the band played an informal program (in casual wear to suit the occasion) at the Old Orchard Beach Corps. This program was chaired by the Bandmaster of the band – John Lam, who also serves as bandmaster of his home corps at London, Ontario Citadel. John’s relaxed style and attractive sense of humor put the crowd and the band at ease, and an excellen
t program followed which featured some new music composed by Canadian born Salvationists. In addition, excellent soloists were featured throughout the program, including pianist Bill Way, whose Brubeck-style offering was particularly well-received following a humorous introduction.
The band served as the “duty” band during the OOB opening program on Saturday night in addition to the Sunday morning and evening times of worship. On Sunday afternoon, the bandparticipated in the previously mentioned March of Witness before sharing a program at the Pier with the Eastern Territorial Songsters. The band’s presentation of marches and selections at this venue were enjoyed by the large crowd of Salvationists and non-Salvationists that were on hand.
The final presentation offered by the band was the Monday night Festival of Music presented at the OOB Pavilion. Old classics including The Canadian, Canadian Folk Song Suite and Montreal Citadel were interspersed with newer compositions including Beyond All Measure (cornet solo written and played by soloist Marcus Venables), Life of Worship (Andrew Wainwright) and Overture: Coronation (Kevin Norbury). The band was on top form for the entire weekend, and in particular on this Monday night Festival of Music program. The Canadian Staff Band’s last visit to OOB was about 13 years ago, and following this excellent weekend of service one hopes that their next visit to the Camp Meetings will be sooner rather than later.
CROSSFIRE BRASS
This year was BM Derek Lance’s (Territorial Music Secretary) first year leading Crossfire Brass. The group had rehearsals every morning during the Camp Meetings week and performed the annual Fireworks concert at the Pier on Thursday night and helped lead worship and a mini concert before special guest contemporary Christian singer / songwriter Mark Schultz performed on Friday night.
Some of the musical selections performed during the week included:
Above All (Mackereth)
All You Need Is Love (Arr. Gates)
Amazing Race (Mackereth)
Dance Like David (Mackereth)
High and Lifted Up (Ponsford)Hold that Fort (Creamer)
Make Me a Channel of Your Peace (Himes)
Manhattan (Leidzen)
New York, New York (Richards)
Olympic Fanfare and Theme (Arr. Graham)
Stars and Stripes Forever (Sousa)
Star Wars Medley (Arr. Bulla)
Stateside (Graham)
Swedish Hymn – Cornet Solo(Arr. Graham)
EASTERN TERRITORIAL SONGSTERS
The Eastern Territorial Songsters were once again pleased to participate in the Old Orchard Beach camp meetings.
The group arrived on Wednesday evening to begin rehearsals first thing Thursday morning at the Old Orchard Beach Corps. Rehearsals always begin with devotions and these times are always meaningful and anticipated by the group to begin our time together and get focused on the Lord so that our ministry would be effective and meaningful to those who hear the group. Captain Elizabeth a
nd Mark Ferreira led in worship. Thursday was a full day with rehearsals ending at 5:00 pm leaving time to spend the evening with friends and family which also has been an important part of the OOB Camp Meetings.
Friday rehearsals resumed at 9:00 AM and concluded with sound checks in the afternoon to prepare for the weekend meetings.
The group enjoyed Saturday off to spend time with family and met together for dinner along with the rest of the program participants. ETS contributions to the Saturday evening meeting were the lively Shine Down (arr. Hayes) and the meditative and touching “I Surrender” (Rouse).
Sunday is a full day for all the participating groups and is always a blessing and an honor for the ETS to participate. During the worship prelude, the ETS helped prepare the hearts and minds of the congregation with “Make Me a Channel of Your Peace” arranged by S/L Gavin Whitehouse. Prior to the morning message, the group sang “A Place for Healing Grace” (Sorenson). The Old Orchard Beach Camp Meetings are considered by many to be a place where people can come to meet with God and receive His healing grace and I believe this selection spoke to and blessed many on this occasion.
Sunday a
fternoon was quite a change of atmosphere – ETS met at the top of the hill alongside The Canadian Staff Band to participate in the March of Witness down to the pier followed by an “open air” concert. Alternating with the CSB, the group sang “This Is Amazing Grace”, “You Can’t Stop God from Loving You”, “There’s Never Been a Mountain”, “Adoration, Thanksgiving and Praise” and finally “You Shall Go Out in Joy” – all upbeat songs.
The weekend concluded in the Sunday evening meeting with the ETS singing “I’ll Follow Thee” to reaffirm our desire to follow Jesus. A benediction “Peace Be With You” was sung over all in attendance to wrap up a great weekend.
The ETS is always blessed and honored to be a part of this great weekend and we look forward to coming back in 2018. We were also blessed and privileged to share the weekend and platform with the Canadian Staff Band who were a great group of people.
SUMMER BRASS
For the fifth year in a row Summer Brass had the privilege of participating in the Old Orchard Beach Pier Ministry and Camp Meetings. It is always great to see the work the Salvation Army is doing at OOB and just an overall awesome experience working with fellow Salvationists and other Christian performers to share the gospel with people of all ages. This year Summer Brass had two different sets prepared for the pier ministry and tried to do something with variety to appeal to a wider audience. This included some choreography and the chance to collaborate with CAST (Creative Arts Service Team from USA Eastern territory) in a few numbers. See the list of musical sets below.
Lord You Are Good (Arr. Harold Burgmayer)
The Prayer *with CAST (Arr. Roger Trigg)
Disney Fantasy *with CAST (Goff Richards)
Amazing Race (Andrew Makereth)
King of Pop *with choreography (Steve Ponsford)
Star Wars *with CAST (Arr. Ryan Broughton)
Members of Summer Brass were also thrilled to take part in Crossfire Brass for the week under the leadership of BM Derek Lance.
UNBOUND
Another amazing week in Old Orchard Beach for UNBOUND! Not only were we blessed to take part in the annual pavilion camp meeting worship services, but every night down at the pier, with the smell of Pier Fries and salt water, we got to play some really fun music. In a “neo-boothian” (thank you Jason Pope) fashion, we played some popular songs with slightly altered lyrics…aimed to attract a crowd in order to share the Gospel. It was incredible. With songs like 25 or 6 to 4, Beat It, Sweet Caroline, Livin On A Prayer and Don’t Stop Believing, crowds gathered and we were able to share a brief testimony of what God has done in our lives. We believe this is foundational to the ministry of the Salvation Army, and we were thrilled to be a part of it!
Oh, and if you were at the pavilion and liked Felipe Concha’s arrangement of Blessed Assurance…here it is!
